July 25, 2024

The Federal Government has spent over $1.5 billion from 2020 to date to protect the nation’s oil installations and curb crude oil theft.

Channels Television reports that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, made this known on Thursday at a public hearing of the House of Representatives on crude oil theft.

Akume who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, General Services, Maurice Nandi said the Federal Government was worried about the report of the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which pointed to over $46 billion worth of stolen crude 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.

Also, Speaker of the House Tajudeen Abbas, represented by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, said $10 billion has been lost in seven months to crude oil theft, and no magic can be done by the government with such a loss.