People sit at the Shell booth on the day of the opening of the Nigeria Oil and Gas 2022 meeting in Abuja, Nigeria July 4, 2022. REUTERS/Afolabi SotundeABUJA, July 6 - Crude oil theft in Nigeria poses an existential threat to the country's oil industry, the local head of Shell
Osagie Okunbor, managing director and country chair for Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and Shell Companies in Nigeria, said oil theft was one of the reasons that Nigeria could not meet its OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels a day. Nigeria lost $1 billion in revenue during the first quarter of this year due to oil theft, the petroleum regulator said last week.
Okunbor said local companies which won licences to develop marginal fields would face challenges to transport their crude once they start production.