The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, says with about 400,000 barrels of crude stolen daily, oil theft has now become a national emergency.

Mr Sylva said the massive crude theft was affecting Nigeria’s capacity to meet OPEC daily quota. 

The country fell from 1.8 million barrels export allocation to 1.4 million barrels. Mr Sylva said the huge loss could cripple the nation’s economy.

On Monday in Owerri, the minister told Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo that local collaboration was needed to stop the economic bleeding as Abuja could not do it alone.

“This is because the thefts are taking place in the communities that host the oil pipelines,” Sylva said. “As a result, it has become necessary to involve the stakeholders, especially the host communities.”

Imo hosts a sizable amount of Nigeria’s oil deposits.

Responding, the governor gave assurance that his administration would sustain its efforts to arrest the economic sabotage being perpetrated by pipeline vandals.

He described the consequences of crude theft as “very alarming and too much to be tolerated.”

The meeting was part of the nationwide intervention efforts to curb crude oil theft.

(NAN)