The oil and gas sector accounts for over 80% of Nigeria's
foreign exchange earnings and over 30% of the Federal
Government's budgetary revenues in 2022 with the significant
portion of these earnings coming from the oil producing communities
in the Niger-Delta region. However, these oil producing communities
have suffered historical neglect in terms of the provision of
socio-economic infrastructures for the enhancement of the living
conditions of inhabitants of such communities.
In recent times, the Nigerian oil and gas industry has been
plagued with significant crude oil theft and vandalization of
critical oil and gas infrastructures, that have negatively impacted
production levels and foreign exchange earnings from crude oil
sales. To appreciate the extent of these challenges on the
country's revenue profile, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum
Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in July 2022, revealed that about 9
million barrels of oil with monetary value of approximately US
