Nigeria and the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) in particular lost N1.5 trillion because of attacks on its facilities from January this year till date, according to latest reports.
The news were made public by Maikanti Baru, the group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday, December 14.
Mr Baru expressed the company's concerns over a hight rate of criminality not only in the oil and gas industry but in the society en masse.
While declaring open the 2016 NNPC Security Awareness week with the theme: “NNPC Security: A Task for All Stakeholders” he said:
"At industry level, we are all conversant with the seriousness and frequency with which national assets in form of pipelines, flow stations are vandalised and crude oil and white products stolen with impunity.
In 2016, January to date for example, NPDC alone recorded 59 security incidents resulting in crude production shut down/deferment and revenue loss of over N1.5 trillion."
The Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group, was blamed for the majority of the attacks in the oil producing region.
According to some estimates, the attacks reduced Nigeria’s oil production and export by about 50%. Besides, it affected power generation as gas supply to power plants was cut.
Stand against insurgency together
The NNPC managing director assured that the governments at various levels were working hard to fight criminality and ensure security and called on all Nigerians not to stay aside.
He said: "At corporate level, you are all aware that the first item on my 12 Focus Areas is security.
This is in recognition of the imperative that without assurances of safety, NNPC, the oil and gas industry, and indeed the country cannot achieve appreciable growth to assure citizens of decent and productive lives."
Kidnap and countermeasures
In a bid to raise staff awareness on kidnapping in turbulent times Mr Baru launched the Corporation’s Kidnap for ransom policy programme.
He urged the workers to actively participate in the activities of the Security Awareness Week so they could protect themselves and the national assets as well.
Niger Delta militants robbed Nigerians of N1.5 trillion in 2016
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