Oil minister counters measurement inaccuracies claim; blames theft, pipeline vandalism for oil losses

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has insisted that crude oil losses in Nigeria were due to theft and pipeline vandalism, opposing the position earlier given by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

On Sunday, the NUPRC announced that about 40 per cent of the volumes credited to crude oil losses in the Nigerian petroleum industry were due to measurement inaccuracies and not theft.

Sylva also attributed the loss of revenue from crude production to theft, pipeline vandalism, and decayed infrastructure, according to a statement issued in Abuja by his Senior Adviser, Media, and Communications, Horatius Egua.

He, however, stated that despite the challenges, the Federal Government was determined to end the trend through improved investments and security along the major oil and gas pipelines in the Niger Delta region.