The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said nine vessels allegedly involved in oil theft had been handed over to the Nigerian Navy and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Mr Sarki Auwalu, Director, DPR,  made the disclosure on Wednesday during an online interactive session with the media on topical issues in the oil and gas industry. Auwalu said the DPR had initiated Crude Oil and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Tracking (COLT) to track vessels coming in or going out of the country in order to curb oil theft. “We have had a remarkable result with COLT. As I am speaking to you today, we have handed nine vessels to the Nigerian Navy and the EFCC.

“They are under the Western Naval Command. We have arrested several vessels and some of the vessels are for oil thieves. “We are working with the Nigerian Navy and we quickly alert the Navy whenever we see any suspicious vessel during surveillance,” he said. Auwalu said that other measures were being implemented by the regulatory agency to improve accountability in the oil and gas sector, which  include the National Production Monitoring System (NPMS) that focuses on data gathering. “We have been able to track online/real time data of what our productions are and so we are now in the position to say what is the production done by this country. “All our fields are largely tracked online now. So, it is not true that Nigeria cannot account for what it is producing, be it crude oil or gas, ” he said.