THE Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is repositioning its operations to ensure a reduction in oil theft, bunkering and pipeline vandalism, its Board Chair, Ledum Mitee, has said. Speaking Wednesday in Abuja at a meeting with political and economic counsellors of the European Union member-countries, Mitee decried huge revenue loss due to the nefarious activities.
This comes as the immediate past chair of NEITI Board, Prof. Assisi Asobie, recommended the installation of Acoustic Leak Detection System (ALDS) to stem oil stealing in the country.
Mitee argued that absence of reliable baseline information and data on the actual quantity of crude either lost through theft, bunkering or pipeline vandalism, is responsible for the poor response and speculations over facts and figures required to deal with these complex problems.
He added: “Full disclosure and public understanding of the quantity of crude oil either lost through vandalism, bunkering or outright stealing and the enormous cost to the economy in financial terms will help draw national and international attention to the urgent need for solutions.”
The NEITI chairman added that the agency hopes to include as part of its independent audit template to capture the quantity of crude stolen, quantity lost through bunkering and others through vandalism and conspiracy. By such an exercise, it will be easier to quantify the loss and provide information publicly to raise the public consciousness.
Mitee disclosed that NEITI’s target is to transit its activities from mere focusing on transparency through accountability to ensuring measurable impact arising from its operations with a view to ensuring that oil and gas revenues translate to good roads, electricity, water, employment opportunities and poverty reduction.
In his remark, the Head of the Political Section of the European Union, Mrs. Belen Calvo-Uyarra, explained that NEITI’s decision to address the political and economic counsellors’ meeting was for member-countries of the European Union to seek ways of supporting the efforts of NEITI in enthroning transparency and accountability in the nation’s extractive sector.
Also, a warning has come from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Asobie, that Nigerian economy might give way very soon under the yoke of monumental corruption.
In a lecture delivered in honour of the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka, penultimate Friday, Asobie said how power is acquired and consolidated, how the material means of its acquisition is procured, how power is used and the purpose for which it is sought and utilised constitute the foundation of corrupt practices in Nigeria.
He pointed at the failure to disclose the quantity of extracted crude oil, improper keeping of records, or incomplete recording of the total revenue derived from oil sales, royalty and tax as practices that have deprived Nigeria’s enormous revenue.
He said both oil companies and domestic operators carry out crude oil theft in sophisticated manner.
Asobie highlighted that oil thieves take refuge under the pretext that there are no Multiphase Flow Meters (MPFM) at the oil well heads in Nigeria.
This practice, as revealed by NEITI, reports that between 1999 and 2008, the oil companies under-paid Nigeria to the tune of well over US$4.860 billion. In addition, the NNPC needs to account to the federation for the sum of US$3.996 billion in dividends due to the federation from the operations of the NLNG.
Asobie submitted that the oil companies have refused to work with the Nigerian government to have multiphase flow meters installed at the oil well heads because the loss between the well head and the terminals is borne almost 100 per cent by the Nigerian government.
The retired varsity teacher accused Nigerian successive governments of refusing to adopt proven technologies that could stem oil theft in the country.
With Nigeria losing billions of dollars in revenue and products, he argued that the Acoustic Leak Detection System (ALDS), which has been tested and worked in many countries across the globe, is capable of minimising oil theft to the barest minimum.
He added: “The technology uses ultrasonic flow meter to detect the pressure point on a pipeline. It detects pipeline leaks at the speed of sound and generates a photo image of the intruder. The signals are continuously scanned and analysed by each local processor at various locations along the pipeline. This helpful technology has not yet been adopted in Nigeria.”
Source: OgoniNews
