July 25, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government, on Thursday, said that it has spent over $1.5 billion since 2020 to protect the nation’s oil installations and curb crude oil theft.
Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Maurice Nandi, disclosed this at a public hearing of the House of Representatives public hearing on crude oil theft.
The hearing follows a report by the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), which estimated that over $46 billion worth of crude oil was stolen between 2009 and 2020.
The House had set up a special committee headed by the Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum Upstream, Ado Doguwa, to investigate the losses in the oil and gas sector.
Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, represented by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, also said $10 billion has been lost in seven months due to crude oil theft.
