Nigeria lost $1 billion in income due to crude oil theft during the first quarter of this year, according to the country's petroleum regulator, who warned that the practice posed a threat to the economy of Africa's leading oil producer.

The fact that Nigeria loses millions of barrels of crude oil a year due to theft and vandalism, including the tapping of crude from a labyrinth of pipelines owned by oil giants, demonstrates that the country's lack of security results in enormous financial losses.

Gbenga Komolafe, the head of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, stated that only roughly 132 million barrels of the 141 million oil produced in the first quarter of 2022 were received at export terminals.

"This indicates that over nine million barrels of oil was lost to crude oil theft ... this amounts to a loss in government revenue of about $1 billion ... in just one quarter," Komolafe said in a statement.

If unchecked, this tendency poses an existential threat to the oil and gas industry and, by extension, the Nigerian economy.

Theft of crude oil surged to an average of 108,000 barrels per day in the first quarter of 2022, up from 103,000 barrels per day in 2021, according to Komolafe.

The theft has prompted the declaration of force majeure at Bonny Oil & Gas Terminal, a pipeline transferring crude from the oil-rich Niger Delta to export vessels, among others, thereby creating a hostile climate and discouraging investment.

President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria has vowed to end oil theft and has established special tribunals to address the issue, yet oil theft continues.

Timipre Sylva, the oil minister of Nigeria, stated last week that he anticipated an improvement in security in the industry, which would allow Nigeria to reach its OPEC output quota by the end of August.