Oil theft will cripple the economy - CBN Gov Lamido Sanusi

The Central Bank of Nigeria
(CBN) Governor, Mallam Lamido
Sanusi, has warned that oil theft
would cripple the nation's
economy.

Sanusi, who was speaking on
the sidelines of the First National
Risk Management Conference in
Lagos last week, said oil theft
was creating heavy leakage on
the economy, warning that if
the trend continued, it would
affect the oil sector's
contribution to the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).

"Oil theft is becoming
worrisome. The perpetrators of
this criminal act are barons who
are bent on sabotaging the
economy. This definitely will
slow down savings and
government revenue," he said.

It will be recalled that the
Nigeria National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC) reported a
drop in crude oil production in
the first quarter of 2013,
January to March, which caused
Nigeria a loss of crude revenue
of about $1.23 billion (N190
billion)
The corporation attributed it to
crude oil theft and vandalism
along the major pipelines within
the Niger Delta.

The NNPC projected that the
nefarious activities would
reduce April and May monthly
average to about 2.2 mbpd and
further decrease crude oil
revenue by about $554 million
(N83 billion) that should have
accrued to the federation
account.