Group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd Mele Kyari has alleged he has been receiving death threats following reforms in the oil and gas sector leading to the discovery of crude oil thieves.
Kyari made the allegation on Wednesday at a one-day legislative transparency and accountability summit organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption.
The NNPC boss said the company has discovered and destroyed thousands of illegal refineries in the last few months as well as connection on the main pipeline carrying crude to the terminal for export.
Kyari dismissed the threat to his life as a non-issue because “every human being will die someday”.
He said while the country is losing about 700,000 barrels of crude daily, it is not all the crude lost that is a result of activities of oil bunkers, adding that some oil companies sometimes refuse to pump crude into the export line when they discover that such crude does not get to the export terminal.
Kyari said the NNPC decided to use the services of private security firms to police the pipelines, and they have recorded a lot of achievements through it.
“Without mincing words, I want to say that this industry is in a threshold of change, there is massive change going on and it is very expensive and of personal cost to many people including myself.
“There is a threat to life, I can say this, I have several death threats but we are not bothered about this, we believe that no one dies unless it is his time.
“But this is the cost of change, when people move away from what they are used to, something new that will take away value and benefit from them, they will react.
“That reaction is benefits to all of us and we will work together to make sure it works out,“ he said.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said the world is changing towards a future where the economic value of oil and gas is far diminished from what it used to be.
