The country that took 10 years to realize that thousands of barrels of oil were being stolen per day

In a neighborhood in the south of Nigeriacalled Delta, a network of oil pipelines has been discovered that has caused large million-dollar losses to the Oil Industry. We are talking about Nigeria, a country that is really affected by a robbery of this magnitude, since it is one of the countries with the highest percentage of poverty in the world.

This discovery is part of a dark but lucrative side of the country’s crude oil industry, its main export. I know the details.

How was the oil theft in Nigeria

In Delta State, southern Nigeria, a 4 km long pipeline through the heavily guarded streams to the Atlantic Ocean.

In that place the thieves They shamelessly loaded the oil stolen from a platform of about 7 meters visible from kilometers in the open sea.

According to the head of the state oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), it was a professional job.

Suspected corruption behind Nigerian oil theft

Oil, Nigeria’s main export, has had a drop in its production of 2.5 million barrels per day in 2011 to just over one million in July 2022, according to the regulatory body. This has caused revenue to decline for years due to theft.

Authorities claim the loss of more than US$3.3 billion for crude oil theft until 2022, a time when other producers are wasting petrodollars and Nigeria cannot even meet its production quota.

And the reality is that this country is mired in poverty and high debt, so it cannot afford to lose money to thieves.

This discovery of illegal activity is said to confirm the old suspicions of corruption massive in the sector, where there is little transparency.

Nigeria’s oil industry bears a documented history of corruption, which starts from a fuel subsidy scheme in which no one really knows how much is imported, to the obscure allocation of oil exploration areas.