The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has disclosed that it lost $700 million monthly to crude oil theft.

The NNPCL said it lost 470,000 bpd to crude oil theft between March and September 2022, especially those perpetrated in Niger Delta region.

The Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, made the disclosure while speaking to newsmen in Abuja.

Wunti stated that the loss hindered the NNPCL from reaching its production quotas set by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

He said: “If you’re producing 30,000 barrels a day, every month, you get 1,940 barrels. So, what it means is that you can take it to 270 every four days, calculate it in a month; you will have seven cargos in a million barrels, that’s seven million barrels.

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“When you multiply seven million barrels by $100 that is $700m lost per month, about 150,000 barrels expected differ, we are not producing due to security challenges.

“The Shell Petroleum Company trunk line, TNP transnational pipeline cannot be operated and this has been like this since March 3 that we put in this.

“Just take your calculator, 150,000, it means if you want to arrive at 1 million barrels per day, it means every week as a minimum, basically for one week alone, it’s four cargo and four cargo is four million barrels.

“Four million barrels formula bar or $100 is $400 million. So you can do your calculations by yourself, take whatever price you want, take this to multiply by the number of days that have been shortened since March 3rd,” Wunti stated.

The GGM, however, said the NNPCL has assembled various digital control systems to curb the losses.

The Star