INVESTIGATION has revealed that Nigeria loses a massive 400,000 barrels of crude daily to pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. Overall damage from piracy, theft and fraud in the sector is estimated at some $1.5 billion a month.
According to Chatham House report, quoted recently by the United States deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Michele Sison, Vandals are responsible for an estimated 250,000 barrels in daily losses.
“Pirates are stealing at a rate of 400,000 barrels per day. That’s a 650,000-barrel shortage on the budgeted daily output. Sobarring all conscious effort on the part of the Nigerian government prices will have to rise more substantially than they have so far this year for Nigeria to feel any positive effect” the report stated
Already, the United Nations Security Council is calling for a comprehensive framework of measures aimed at eradicating Piracy following an attack in April 11th that affected seven countries.
The cargoes came from Nigeria, Turkey and Greece; the ships were flying Maltese and Liberian flags; and the 8 missing crewmen were from the Egypt, the Philippines and Turkey.
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In the first quarter of this year alone, there were six recorded pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea, and six attempted attacks. Nine of those were off the coast of Nigeria, while one was off the coast of Côte d’Ivoire, and two were within the territorial waters of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Nigeria has thrown its lot in the fight against pirates, but it has too much on its plate already. Plagued by low oil prices, pipeline vandalism and stalling reforms at its state oil company, the country has more than enough to worry about in addition to losses to pirates.
In March, the country pumped 1.677 million barrels of crude, which was a decline on the previous month’s 1.744 million. For June, Nigeria plans to export 1.57 million barrels of crude for instance, compared with 1.6 million barrels scheduled to leave its shores in May.
What’s more, its budget for 2016 had envisaged a daily output of 2.2 million barrels an amount unlikely to be reached in the short-term.
All in all, Nigeria has sunk deeper and deeper, and even a continued oil price rally would not be sufficient to prop it up as production continues to decline.