Nigeria scaling up measures to stem oil theft — Sylva

By Uthman Salami

The Minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva said Nigeria has begun scaling up security measures to put an end to oil theft, which has largely remained one of the toughest issues in the oil and gas sector.

The Minister expressed the hope before the weekend after meeting with oil companies.

His expectation is to see some improvement in security in the sector to enable the country to meet its OPEC production quota by the end of August.

According to him, “For us in Nigeria we are at a low point. We are not able to meet our OPEC quota,” Oil Minister Timipre Sylva told a media conference, but added he expected to do so soon.

“We have given ourselves just about a month to ensure that we can. We believe that by August we would see some improvement in security.

“At this moment, I think prices are firm enough and I don’t think there will be any surprises in August. We believe that the market is well supplied,” he said.

“Of course some people consider the price to be on the high side and expect us to pump more. At this moment there is little capacity that can be brought to the market.”

Oil theft and vandalism are responsible for vast financial losses for the West African country.

The President has promised to ensure that the menace is stopped and has set up dedicated courts to combat the problem.