By Lucas Xavier
Pipeline vandalism, sabotage and oil theft are crimes
that hurt the criminal, the environment and the economy at large and frequent
mishaps leading to avoidable deaths.
These crimes are fuelled by ignorance and lack of enlightenment
and education and is a threat to oil industry growth as the sector is unable to
attract investment capita.
Shell reports that crude
oil theft on the pipeline network resulted in a loss of around 11,000 barrels
of oil a day (bbl/d) in 2018, which is more than the approximate 9,000 bbl/d in
2017. It also reports the identification of over 1000 oil theft points. The
fallout opportunity costs from downtime and theft point repairs has seen a
staggering loss of revenue and subsequent loss of confidence from investors in
the sector.
Indigenous investors like Aiteo Group who have
a debt portfolio of about $2 billion have been inherently seen to struggle to
service these debts in the wake of such challenges.
Crude Oil theft and
vandalism cannot be dissociated from the economic disadvantages and neglect of
the region in the past and present political and security instability in the
country.
A recent report by Nigeria
Natural Resource Charter (NNRC) states that N2.6 trillion has been lost to the
pervasive activities of vandals and corruption in 2016 & 2017 alone.
In context, it makes up approximately 30% of
the proposed N8.83 trillion for the Nigerian 2019 budget and 70% of the
projected Oil revenue for 2019 which stands at N3.73 trillion. Which means it
can conveniently take care of the allocations for education, defense and
healthcare with more than half to support other areas of the economy in rot.
Initiatives like the
23 local content directives developed for the Nigerian Content and Development
Board (NCDMB) have been impactful but from all indications data from multiple
studies have shown that it cannot meet its projected targets and has not
delivered the desired results in reduction of restiveness and other prevalent
security challenges affecting the oil and gas industry and more is required by
all stakeholders to stem the tide of theft, vandalization in the sector. The
infamous amnesty program has also played a useful role, but despite its best
efforts systemic corruption has hampered its delivery to those most in need of
the program.
This is why the
efforts from Bayelsa State through the Education Development Trust fund (EDTF)
is a welcome development for states and indeed the country to follow.
Companies should take
the route towed by Aiteo Group in supporting such initiatives in states of
operation. In donating N500 million to the Trust fund, it has secured the
futures of thousands of Bayelsa youth who in times past, their only recourse to
success was relegated to a life of crime and restiveness. This has inevitably
secured their own future as a going concern in the region. The company had been
reported to support education in their host community especially in the
engineering discipline that is core to its operations but as the popular
opinion suggests “catch them young”, this wholesome approach it supports with
the state government is even more endearing.
As a call to action,
it is therefore imperative that corporate society need emulate the overwhelming
support Aiteo Group has pledged to the emergency situation in education in its
host state and pursue similar courses in their various areas of operation
through transparent and auditable initiatives in the failing sectors of
education, healthcare and defense. Hopefully these civil actions will shame our
governments whose members are usually associated with wanton greed and
self-cause into the noble cause of their esteemed offices.
Xavier contributed
this piece from Lagoa
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