ABUJA, Nigeria, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- The head of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative said it was ready to help Nigeria address the sale of stolen crude oil on the international market.
A July report from the EITI estimated Nigeria lost $10.9 billion in oil revenue to theft and sabotage from 2009 to 2011. Chairwoman Clare Short told Nigerian newspaper BusinessDay the organization needed to figure out who was cheating the system in Nigeria.
"In our last report, we exposed the losses but we are now going further to show where these oil are being taken and we are going to collaborate with other nations to expose those buying them," Short said.
She said a multi-national effort is needed to figure out who is buying the stolen Nigerian crude oil on the international market to deal with the problem.
"It has always been argued whether it is the government, the international oil companies or the people who is responsible for the oil theft, but our experience has shown that you cannot place the blame at the doorstep of a single body," she said in an interview published Wednesday. "But the international community must cooperate to tackle the challenge."
