He said this yesterday at the 5th
quadrennial delegate’s conference holding in Asaba, Delta State.
The conference with the theme, “Just Energy
Transition: For oil and gas workers social welfare and security” was attended
by the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige who was represented by
the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba; the Governor of
Delta State who was represented by his deputy and the Group Executive Director
(Upstream), NNPC Ltd, Engr. Adokiye Tombomieye and other senior government
officials.
The theft of crude oil has been having a
negative effect on the revenue of the federal government.
This development is worrisome as it is
denying the country the much-needed funding to boost economic development.
Apart from revenue loss, the issue of oil
theft is currently threatening not only the NNPC’s quest for energy security
for the country, it is also having a debilitating effect on Nigeria’s revenue
earnings.
A report released last month during a
meeting on crude oil theft between the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory
Commission and Oil Producers Trade Section, as well as the Independent
Petroleum Producers Group, showed that between January 2021 and February 2022,
Nigeria lost a whopping $3.2bn to crude oil theft.
The amount when converted by the official N416.25 to a dollar exchange rate translates to about N1.36trn.