Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state gave a cheering news on Thursday, saying oil theft in the Niger Delta region has reduced drastically from about 100, 000 barrels per day to 40, 000 barrels.
However, he posited that much still needed to be done in the areas of monitoring and deployment of modern technology to bring oil theft to zero level.
Uduaghan also stressed the need to ensure that those found culpable of oil theft are prosecuted accordingly to serve as deterrent to others.
Speaking with State House correspondents on Thursday, he said, “Let me emphasize that the volume of crude oil theft is reducing.
“Again, I must explain that at a time, oil theft was at its peak, there was a shutdown of about 300 barrel of oil as a result of damage to two major pipelines and at that time, between 80,000 and 100,000 barrels were being stolen.
“That was the time we took some measures to ensure that the quantity that is being stolen is reduced. Today, I can tell you that the crude that is being stolen is reduced to about 40,000 barrels per day.
“Those two pipelines are now functioning. So the 300,000 that was shut down as a result to the damage to the pipelines have now been opened.
“Stealing 40,000barrels per day is still on the high side, but as we go further, in putting a lot of measures in place, especially in areas of prosecution, I believe that the quantity that is being stolen will gradually reduce if possibly bring it to zero level. Apart from prosecution, we are also talking of technology and monitoring to deal with the oil theft,” he said.
