…Increase In Crude Oil Production Vital For Economic Stability —Kyari
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, on Tuesday said that President Bola Tinubu has intensified the war against crude oil theft in the nation’s oil-producing region.
Kyari disclosed this to journalists at the Defence Headquarters, after a meeting with heads of security and intelligence agencies, convened by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Christopher Musa.
Speaking on the purpose of the meeting, the GCEO noted that the engagement with the CDS and other security agencies was at the directive of the president, who had issued a marching order to control the crisis in the Niger Delta operational area.
The Niger Delta region is being challenged by the menace of crude oil theft, vandalism and illegal refineries, thereby placing the country at a disadvantage with an estimated loss of 100,000 to 120,000 barrels daily.
In the last nine years, the nation lost $1.84bn worth of petroleum products from illegal refineries, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Ogbonnaya Orji, said on Monday.
The Chief Executive of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory, Gbenga Komolafe
in a recent interview, said Nigeria suffers immensely from the negative impact of crude oil thieves, which has affected the nation.
However, Kyari noted that “The president has directed the CDS to contend this within the shortest possible time so that we can restore national production to the level the president and the country is expecting.”
The NNPCL boss noted that achieving this feat would require the “coordination and cooperation of all armed forces, the police, the DIA, the DSS among others.”
Kyari added that to go lenient on the penetrators of crude oil theft and all forms of criminal activities in the oil-producing region is to put the survival of the country at stake.
He said, “Without restoring oil and gas production, we cannot have the economic stability that we desire. The president is clearly focused on this to deliver value to our country. It is impossible to do this without settling the crisis around our operational areas.
“We are already seeing progress; we are seeing substantial value that is being created by the coordination but we are very convinced that a solution is in sight.”
On his part, the CDS pledged to clear the south-south region of any acts of vandalism, or criminality within the oil-producing region while seeking the cooperation of the host communities.
He said, “As we said, the President has given us a mandate to ensure that we secure the entire South-South and to enable NNPC and others to carry out their tasks so that we can have improved production. We know that Nigeria relies so much on what we produce and so, we want to use this medium to appeal to the communities to have an understanding.
“Everyone has a role to play. It is not only for the security agencies alone. We need the communities to understand that pipeline vandalism and all the hazards being caused are also affecting them directly. And we need to stop that.
“We need to work together. And this meeting we had today is to harmonize that based on the mandates that the President has given us.
“We’re going to work together as a team. All the operations will be harmonized. Coming on that, the Joint Task Force, with the land components of all the other agencies, and we’re going to work and bring results. And I can assure you within the next shortest possible time, two, or three months, you will see results coming in.”
Also, the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun said, “We accept that we have challenges, but we must all come together to solve them. So, we need the cooperation of all agencies, we need the cooperation of the citizens.
“We need to take every step that we need to take to address all these issues. I assure you that in the days ahead, you are going to see results.”