Nigerian billionaire businessman Tony Elumelu has called on the federal government and security agencies to expose the oil thieves responsible for smuggling the country’s crude oil.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Elumelu highlighted that this issue is driving international oil companies to divest from Nigeria.
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Many multinational oil firms that have been operating in the country for decades have recently exited, with some shifting their investments to agriculture and other sectors.
Elumelu, whose Heirs Holdings has significant investments in the oil industry, attributed this trend to the ongoing problem of criminal gangs stealing crude from pipelines.
He said: “I discovered first-hand why international oil companies were partly divesting from onshore assets after criminal gangs began stealing crude from my pipelines”.
While expressing optimism over the situation, Elumelu during the Financial Times interview, said “42,000 barrels of crude are pumped out daily. Theft still takes away about 18 percent of production from our field.”
He stated that the government should be aware of and capable of revealing the individuals behind the massive oil thefts in the country.
“This is oil theft, we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket. The government should know, they should tell us. Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him. Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters and we don’t know?”
