NOSDRA RAISES ALARM OVER WEAK NIGERIAN LAWS TO CATCH CRUDE OIL THIEVES

 The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) has  said that the law setting up regulatory agencies are too weak to catch crude oil thieves.

NOSDRA which raised the alarm over the frequencies of crude theft going on across the country and the resultant oil spills that followed said something urgent must be done to arrest it.

The Diector General of NOSDRA, Sir Peter Idabor who  made the revelations when he  appeared before the Senate Committee on Environment in Abuja said that over 5,000 barrels of crude theft from the facilities of the major oil multinationals were reported aside from those that took place within the facilities of Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC).

Idabor said that the rate of theft of crude in the North Central, particularly Kaduna and FCT was alarming.

He noted that most of the stolen crude are being ferried to the major international borders for sale.

This is just as the Managing Directors of the major oil companies shunned the meeting but gave various reasons for their inability to come before the Senate to avail it of efforts being made to clean the various oil spills which the upper chamber puts at 172 million barrels  within one month.