Oil theft: Elumelu says his firm now recovers 98% of oil produced from its facilities in Nigeria

Key takeaways:

• Tony Elumelu says oil production losses at his company’s facilities have fallen to 2%
• Elumelu said businesses no longer need connections at the Central Bank of Nigeria to access dollars
• The remarks echo earlier comments Elumelu has made crediting the Tinubu administration with curbing oil theft

Nigerian billionaire Tony Elumelu says his company now recovers 98% of the oil it produces from its facilities, crediting the improvement to security gains made under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings and United Bank for Africa, made the remarks addressing Tinubu at theState House in Abuja on Sunday.

“Mr. President, before you took over in 2023, we were losing 97% of our oil production. Today, losses are down to 2%; we retain 98%, and we no longer need to know anyone at the CBN to access dollars,” Elumelu said.

Oil theft that once crippled production

In the past, the billionaire has repeatedly raised alarm over oil theft in Nigeria in the years leading up to Tinubu’s presidency.

In 2022, he said publicly that Nigeria was losing more than 95% of its oil production to thieves, citing the Bonny Terminal, which he said was receiving less than 3,000 barrels a day despite a capacity of over 200,000 barrels, forcing operator Shell to declare force majeure at the time.

He argued then that theft, not underinvestment, was the primary reason Nigeria was unable to meet its OPEC production quota.

The turnaround Elumelu describes aligns with broader improvements reported across Nigeria’s oil sector in recent years.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has previously credited stronger security measures, pipeline surveillance and fiscalisation processes, monthly reconciliations that track how much oil is actually produced versus how much reaches export terminals, for the sharp reduction in losses reported across the industry.

A currency market that no longer needs the right connections

In addition, Elumelu’s comment about accessing dollars points to reforms in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market since 2023, when the Tinubu administration moved to unify the naira’s exchange rates and reduce the opaque, connections-driven allocation system that had long characterized dollar access in the country.

Businesses previously often relied on relationships with Central Bank officials or preferential allocations to secure foreign currency for imports and operations, Elumelu alleged, saying the policy is a major obstacle to doing business in Nigeria.

Elumelu’s company, Heirs Energies, operates OML 17, an oil block acquired from Shell, where production has grown from around 21,000 barrels per day at acquisition to over 58,000 barrels per day currently, according to figures Elumelu has cited in past public remarks.

He has positioned the company’s turnaround as evidence of what is possible in Nigeria’s oil sector when security and regulatory conditions improve, and has separately called for the country to raise overall crude output toward 2 million barrels per day and beyond to fund broader economic diversification.