Nigerian oil theft: Breakthrough or false dawn?

Progress on fixing Nigeria’s long-term oil pipeline theft problem needs to be supported by a wider strategy to avoid relapse

The issue of theft from Nigeria’s oil pipelines has largely been resolved, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in August, with pipeline and terminal receipts attaining close to 100%. Figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the body with regulatory responsibility for oil pipeline theft, show that daily losses to theft stood at 9,600b/d in July, the lowest since 2009. That compares with a daily average of 102,900b/d in 2021. Strengthened regulatory oversight is part of the reason. The NNPC was both regulator and commercial operator until 2021, when the Petroleum Industry Act handed regulatory authority for pipeline theft to the NU