Ribadu confirmed this when he led a presidential delegation to inspect oil and gas facilities at Owaza in Abia and Odogwa in Etche LGA of Rivers on Saturday, August 26.
He said the activities of oil thi£ves and pipeline vandals had impacted negatively on the nation’s economy and were partly responsible for the rising cost of living in the country.
“It’s unfortunate that few individuals would st£al our common resources, and in the process cause unbelievable loss to both the nation, communities and the people.
Nigeria has the capacity to produce two million barrels of crude daily, but we are currently producing less than 1.6 million barrels due to th£ft and vandalism of pipelines.
So, we are talking about 400,000 barrels of crude oil going to waste with few criminals and economic saboteurs not even getting much out of it.
The value of 400,000 barrels of oil today is about 4 million dollars, and every day, we lose this amount because of this irresponsible behaviour.
If you multiply 4 million dollars by 365 days (one year), you will see that it is a lot of money running into billions of dollars.
Currently, the country is in desperate need of money as the Naira is continuously losing its value because we earn less money. If we earn more money, it will not only help strengthen our currency but reflect in everything, including cost of living in the country,” he said.
