Crude oil being illegally transported in the Niger Delta
Oil
workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural
Gas Workers have warned that they will suspend production if the rate of
oil theft in the country is not checked.
The unions also threatened that the
workers would stop the supply of petroleum products if there was no end
to the organised destruction of oil installations in the country.
PENGASSAN’s National Industrial
Relations Officer, Mr. Chika Onuegbu, gave the warning on Wednesday
while delivering a lecture titled: ‘Escalating oil theft and the
Petroleum Industry Bill,’ at a workshop organised by Spaces for Change
in Port Harcourt.
Onuegbu said the nation was losing between $6bn and $12bn every year to oil bunkering and illegal refining.
“I want to clearly inform you that if
nothing concrete is done to stop oil theft, the oil workers’ unions
(PENGASSAN and NUPENG) may be forced to suspend production of crude oil
and supply of petroleum products until appropriate action is taken.
“The impact of this ultimately on
overall revenue from oil accruing to the Federation Account should be
negative and severe as was alluded to by the NNPC recently.”
He explained that Nigerians, especially
indigenes of the Niger Delta region, had expected the government to
translate the revenue from oil exploitation to urban and rural
infrastructure development.
Onuegbu added that oil theft began the
moment it became clear that the Federal Government was not committed to
the development of the people.
He said, “Since then, both organised and
unorganised destruction of oil installations have been on the increase.
Most of these were done because of the economic benefits derivable from
it.
“Others were carried out as a mark of
resistance and protest to the skewed nature of wealth creation and
distribution in Nigeria, especially as it affects the oil wealth and the
communities.
“Most of the incidences were targeted at
stealing products, both crude and refined, which are then sold
internationally or refined locally into products.”
On the PIB, Onuegbu said various
solutions to oil theft had been proposed, even as he identified the
involvement of host communities in the protection of oil installations
as one of such proposed solutions.
PUNCH
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