Nigerian businessman Tony Elumelu believes the government and security authorities in Nigeria should be able to identify Nigerians who steal the country’s crude oil, particularly those who use vessels that travel through territorial seas.
Elumelu mentioned this in an interview with the Financial Times on Friday.
Elumelu, who fears oil theft, stated that the threat contributed to the departure of multinational oil firms from Nigeria.
He claimed he discovered firsthand why foreign oil firms were partially divesting from onshore assets when criminal gangs began stealing crude from his pipelines.
In 2022, when things got to a point where his company had to shut down production, Elumelu took to social media, tweeting, “How can we be losing over 95 per cent of oil production to thieves? Look at the Bonny Terminal which should be receiving over 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily, instead, it receives less than 3,000 barrels, leading the operator Shell to declare force majeure.
“The reason Nigeria is unable to meet its OPEC production quota is not because of low investment but because of theft, pure and simple!
“Meanwhile, oil-producing countries are smiling as their foreign reserve is rising. What is Nigeria’s problem? We need to hold our leaders more accountable!”
Elumelu expressed confidence in an interview with the Financial Times, but added that oil thieves continue to steal 18% of his field’s crude.
“42,000 barrels of crude pumped out daily. Theft still takes away about 18 per cent of production, he stated.
Asked who is behind the theft, he replied, “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?”
The 61-year-old founder of Heirs Holdings described how the former administration of President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly prevented him from acquiring an oilfield.
He revealed that Heirs Holdings has been searching to buy the oilfield since 2017, after raising $2.5 billion to buy another one. In a twist, he claimed that former President Muhammadu Buhari and his late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had vetoed the agreement.
He claimed he was warned that Nigeria could not allow something of such strategic importance to slip into the hands of a private company.
“This defied logic,” he said, since he would have bought it from a foreign corporation.
As one of the few Nigerians who made their fortunes outside of oil, Elumelu revealed that his decision to purchase a 45 percent stake in an oilfield three years ago, when international oil companies such as Shell, Total, and Eni were selling off their shallow water assets in Nigeria, was to provide the country with energy security in the face of low power supply.
“We wanted to become a Fortune 500 company, and we estimated what we needed. It’s not naira, it’s huge dollars. Energy security is crucial for a country that doesn’t produce enough electricity for its roughly 200 million citizens,” he added.
