Elumelu: Government, security agencies should tell Nigerians those behind oil theft

Tony Elumelu, the founder and chairman of Heirs Energies, an upstream oil and gas company, says the government and security agents in Nigeria should be able to disclose to Nigerians those who steal the country’s crude oil.

Elumelu spoke in an interview published by the Financial Times (FT) on Friday.

Elumelu said oil theft contributed to the divestment of international oil companies in Nigeria.

“Who is behind the theft, I ask. It’s a question that has confounded many Nigerians,” he said.

“This is oil theft, we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket.

“The government should know, they should tell us. Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him. Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters and we don’t know?”

In 2010, Elumelu formed Heirs Holdings, an investment company.

In 2021, the business tycoon decided to buy a 45 percent stake in oil mining lease (OML) 17.

Speaking to FT on buying an oil asset in an age of energy transition, Elumelu said the company wanted to become a Fortune 500 company and “we estimated what we needed”.

“It’s not naira, it’s huge dollars. Energy security is crucial for a country that doesn’t produce enough electricity for its roughly 200mn citizens,” he said.

Elumelu said Heirs Holdings had been looking to purchase an oilfield since 2017, adding that $2.5 billion was raised for it.

However, he said former President Muhmmadu Buhari and his chief of staff, Abba Kyari, “blocked the deal”.

Elumelu said he was told Nigeria could not allow something of such strategic importance to fall into the hands of a private operator.

This, the businessman said, defied logic, since he would have been purchasing it from a foreign company.

Elumelu said he soon discovered first-hand why international oil companies (IOCs) were partly divesting from onshore assets –after criminal gangs began stealing crude from his pipelines.

In 2022, when things got to a point where his company had to shut down production, Elumelu vented his frustration on social media, tweeting: “How can we be losing over 95% of oil production to thieves?”

On July 2, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited declared a state of emergency on crude oil production.

Making the announcement, Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of NNPC, said war has been declared on the challenges affecting Nigeria’s crude oil production.

Kyari said the national oil firm has the right tools, “knows what to fight” and what it needs “to do at the level of assets”.