• Nigeria lost $3.3B oil to theft, vandalism in 2023-2024

• NEITI to launch ownership register, track oil cargoes in real-time

• Reforms aim to boost transparency, cut revenue leakages
  

The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) is stepping up efforts to boost oil revenue traceability, aiming to curb losses from theft and vandalism of energy infrastructure. The agency, which oversees transparency in the extractive sector, said Nigeria lost about $3.3 billion between 2023 and 2024, roughly 13.5 million barrels of crude oil siphoned off or lost through vandalism.

Local media reported on Thursday, October 9, that the announcement was made in Lagos during the 2025 conference of the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC). It’s part of a new governance strategy to track oil revenues in real time and identify asset ownership.

NEITI is creating a national beneficial ownership register to reveal the real owners of companies in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, with the goal of improving transparency along the value chain from production to commercialization. The body also plans to strengthen cooperation among federal agencies, oil companies and security forces to enhance pipeline surveillance. It will digitize and integrate audit reports and payments to enable faster detection of revenue leakages.

Executive Secretary Ogbonnaya Orji said the reforms respond to weak governance and chronic opacity in the oil industry. Crude theft, he noted, not only drains revenue but also undermines state credibility and investor confidence.

The beneficial ownership register, a measure recommended globally under the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) framework, will expose the real interests behind oil companies, often hidden behind nominees. The initiative comes as Nigeria steps up oversight of the sector. The government has also begun developing a system to track all exported crude oil cargoes in real time, due for rollout in 2026.

Abdel-Latif Boureima