The Senate’s ad-hoc committee investigating the persistent theft of Nigeria’s crude oil intensified its inquiry on Tuesday with an oversight visit to the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).
Speaking after the engagement, the committee’s chairman, Senator Ned Nwoko, said the visit was a crucial step in ensuring that the Senate’s final report on crude oil losses is “factual, defensible, and grounded in verifiable data.”
According to Nwoko, the committee has so far submitted three interim reports to the Senate, each backed by extensive analysis, expert consultations, both local and international, and credible documentation. The findings, he noted, expose years of significant revenue leakages in the nation’s oil sector.
He explained that the committee’s probe is not only focused on historical losses but also on evaluating current realities in Nigeria’s upstream operations.
“While the historical challenges are significant, it is equally important to understand what is happening now within NNPC’s upstream operations,” Senator Nwoko said.
During the session with NNPC officials, the committee pressed for clarity on past operational lapses that enabled large-scale crude theft and revenue loss. It also assessed ongoing reforms aimed at stabilising production and protecting critical pipeline infrastructure.
Nwoko said the committee’s objective is to reconcile documented past losses with present-day operational data to determine how effective the current mitigation measures have been.
The findings from this phase of engagement, he added, will form an integral part of the committee’s final report to the Senate.
