The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele has decried the unprecedented rate of oil theft going on in the country in recent times and its debilitating effect on government revenue and accretion to reserves.
Emefiele made this known while briefing journalists at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting which was held in Abuja.
Following the MPC meeting, which is the second in 2022, the CBN resolved to retain the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), which is also known as the interest rate, at 11.5% with the asymmetric corridor of +100/-700 basis points around the MPR.
However, Emefiele called on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to take urgent steps to ensure adequate supply of petroleum products in the country to reduce the rate of arbitrary increase in price of these petroleum products by oil marketers.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the CBN governor’s comment is coming barely few days after the Co-founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Energy Plc, Mr. Austin Avuru expressed the same concerns while also calling for a state of emergency in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.
The energy mogul also went on to reveal that up to 80% of oil pumped in the country, particularly in the East, is stolen. Avuru spoke few days after a businessman and Chairman Heirs Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu, also lamented the worsening State of the industry, stressing that at least 95% of oil production does not get to the terminal.
Africa Today News, New York can confirm that Elumelu has his oil assets in the Niger Delta.
Just about a week ago, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company (AEEPCO), operators of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) pipeline, threatened to exit the facility due to incessant vandalism, perennial sabotage and outright theft.
The company sated, ‘AEEPCO remains gravely concerned about the persistent heightened attack on our production facilities and the NCTL. These attacks appear to have escalated in intensity and effect.
‘All our current efforts to sustain and increase crude production are being aggressively undermined, even wiped out by the activities of economic saboteurs whose audacity continues to be growing by the day.’
Aiteo disclosed that its NCTL had been targeted, with considerable success, for the sole and devastating objective of aiding crude theft.
The company also disclosed that given the level of losses, occasioned by massive oil theft, it was experiencing, as joint operator of the NNPC/AITEO JV, it was now left with the unavoidable option of actualising a total exit from the NCTL.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK