An oil and gas expert has blamed the insecurity of upstream assets and oil theft as the biggest problems affecting the industry in Nigeria.

Professor Emeritus in Petroleum Economics and Executive Director of Emmanuel Egbogah Foundation, Wumi Iledare disclosed this on Monday on the heels of Nigeria’s 63rd Independence anniversary.

He said reforms in the sector have been ineffective for the past 20 years due to inefficiency, corruption and a transactional leadership mindset.

He said a practical implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act and fully embracing its provisions would reverse the ugly trend in the country’s oil and gas sector.

“The way forward is to go back to the core objectives of the PIA Act and be determined to follow not only the letters of the law but the intent, particularly aligning the assigned responsibilities of the three anchor institutions to the objectives of the Act.

“The biggest challenge affecting the oil industry in Nigeria, apart from the transactional leadership mindset and prebendalistic industry governance, is the insecurity of upstream assets and oil theft.

“The industry reform that took more than 20 years to fashion has not been as effective as anticipated because of the apparent flaws in the implementation process.

“The immediate past administration was too busy to assign appointments for flawless implementation.

“Hitherto, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry operations have added significant value to the national economy. In the immediate years after the war ended in 1970, the industry contributed more than 20 to the national Gross Domestic Product, GDP. Then, oil was looked at as the engine to drive economic output.

“Unfortunately, in the last 25 years, since 1998, petroleum rent-seeking has dominated the Nigerian landscape. To the extent that oil has become more for revenue sharing than for human and physical infrastructure development.

“It rarely contributes 10 percent of the GDP. The evidence is very glaring that the Nigerian constitution is majorly a rent-seeking and rent-sharing document.

“I am optimistic about reversing the trend. But this depends on the full embracement of the provisions of the PIA”, he stated.

Insecurity of upstream assets, oil theft biggest problems in Nigeria’s gas industry