Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, has disclosed that approximately 7.68 million barrels of crude oil were either stolen or lost in 2023.
He made this disclosure during a Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Roundtable held in Abuja on Thursday.
The executive secretary said the objective of the roundtable was to ensure that transparency and accountability lead to meaningful policy changes and improvements in public welfare.
He announced that NEITI would soon finalise a data centre to enhance access to extractive sector information, which will house all industry reports from 1999 onwards.
On the issue of crude, Orji pointed out that there was a substantial 79 per cent decrease in crude oil theft in 2023 compared to the previous year.
He urged the gathered civil society representatives to concentrate on critical findings from the recently published NEITI 2022/2023 Oil and Gas Industry Reports.
He emphasised the role of CSOs in monitoring governmental strategies to combat oil theft and advocating for enhanced environmental protections.
The executive secretary emphasised the need for these entities to consider the concerns of impacted communities in national resource management policies.
He further stressed the need for CSOs to advocate for improved revenue collection mechanisms to ensure that Nigeria maximizes its oil resource benefits.
“CSOs must push for improved revenue collection mechanisms to ensure full value of Nigeria’s oil resources benefits the nation,” he added.
