Nigeria pledges to eradicate oil theft in 8 months

Nigeria on Tuesday expressed determination to eradicate oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the next eight months.

Emmanuel Kachikwu, Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), gave the assurance on Tuesday at a conference on security in the Gulf of Guinea in Abuja, the nation's capital city.

The state-run oil giant boss said the measure was part of efforts to enhance transparency and accountability in the oil and gas industry, to boost production capacity of the corporation.

Oil theft and pipeline vandalism has greatly affected the revenue generation and image of Nigeria at the international arena, Kachikwu told his audience.

He added that oil theft has reduced the nation's revenue generation and indeed affected the image of the country at the international community.

"We are loosing 50,000 barrels of crude oil to oil theft everyday and at the same time most of our pipelines are targeted frequently," he said.

"We lost not fewer than 360 combined staff of NNPC, the Nigeria Police and members of the community to oil theft in the last one year," Kachikwu added.

The director disclosed that as part of ways to find a lasting solution to the lingering oil theft, the corporation would establish a company that would be saddled with the responsibility of securing pipeline in the country.

He said oil theft was perpetrated by the bigwigs, saying that the poor have no business with oil theft.

The group managing director called on Nigerians to join and support the campaign against oil theft and pipeline vandalism for the benefit of all Nigerians. Endit