Nigeria loses at least 700,000 barrels of crude oil to thieves daily, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, has revealed.

“Oil theft has denied the country of an estimated 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The adverse effect of this is the drop in the production of crude oil and decline in the national income,” he said.

Mr Sylva made the assertion on Saturday at the 2002 graduation of students of Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Effurun, Delta State.

The minister, who was represented by Gabriel Aduda, a permanent secretary in his ministry, said the federal government was working to curtail the menace and stop the negative impact on Nigeria’s foreign exchange inflow.

He said the petroleum ministry would synergise with the National Assembly to ensure that adequate attention was given to the amendment of the PTI Act.

Mr Sylva said that the institute could achieve more if the PTI Act was amended to enable the institute to have access to more funding.

He said the ministry had given PTI mandates in different areas of research into use of local materials in crude oil production, stoppage of gas flaring and the commercialisation of gas, among others.

The minister advised PTI to embrace contemporary methods to deliver on its mandates following global rapid changes in technology and to liaise with relevant agencies of government and local and international oil companies.

Mr Sylva congratulated the graduates and assured them that there were opportunities in the oil and gas industry.

“The skills you acquired will be pivotal in actualising the ever evolving goals in the oil and gas industry. I am saying this confidently because the world still relies largely on hydrocarbons,” he said.

(NAN)