The Federal Government may have adopted a virtual means of evacuation of crude oil that involves the utilisation of barges and trucks for the transportation of crude from the point of production to injection/storage points for eventual transportation to export terminals.
The federal government said the Alternative Crude Oil Evacuation Systems was implemented to avoid production deferment, losses and other undesirable consequences as a result of pipeline disruption and outages.
This was unfolded in a new presentation by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission on “Stability in the Nigerian Energy Sector: Integrated Strategies for Infrastructure, Transportation and Sundry”, to the media on Sunday.
Nigeria loses trillions of naira to crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism annually, a development that made the government consider virtual means of transporting the commodity.
In October 2023, the media reported that the Senate ordered a comprehensive probe into the activities of security forces and organised groups employing sophisticated techniques to steal crude oil in the country.
The report stated that the decision was prompted by a motion put forth by Senator Ned Nwoko (PDP, Delta North), who reeled out data on what Nigeria loses to pipeline vandalism and oil bunkering.
The lawmaker had pointed out that Nigeria lost N2.3tn to oil theft in 2023 alone.
