In a renewed push to curb oil theft, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) has underscored the necessity of metering crude oil pipelines across Nigeria, citing it as critical for accurately tracking production levels.
According to Newsconnect, DHQ has long advocated for metering, but the initiative remains unimplemented. On Thursday, Major General Edward Buba, Director of Defence Media Operations, emphasized the importance of pipeline metering for assessing Nigeria’s daily crude output.
“We enhanced surveillance over pipeline infrastructure, collaborated more closely with stakeholders in the oil sector, and advocated for pipeline metering to precisely determine daily production,” Buba explained. “While this metering has not yet been put in place, our increased surveillance and military actions have positively impacted crude oil production.”
In a further statement on Wednesday, Buba confirmed the military’s insistence on implementing metering measures, noting, “The metering responsibility lies with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. The military has insisted it be done, and NNPC management is working toward implementation.”
Nigeria continues to face economic strain from widespread oil theft. The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) reported that over N4.3 trillion in crude oil was lost to theft through 7,143 incidents of pipeline vandalism in the past five years.
To strengthen transparency in oil production, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a $21 million contract on July 13, 2024, to install meters at 187 crude oil flow stations nationwide. However, efforts to reach the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, which oversees the metering installations, were unsuccessful. Commission spokesperson Olaide Shonola had assured updates on the installation process but had not responded at the time of this report.
