Elumelu's Oil Production Claim Sparks Misinterpretation Over '97%' Statistic

Nigeria's crude oil production has been plagued by theft and pipeline vandalism for years. In July 2025, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, spoke at a meeting with President Tinubu and the Association of Power Generation Companies (GENCOs) about the impact of these issues on his company's operations.

'Before you took office in 2023, we lost 97% of our daily oil production,' Elumelu said. 'Today, we are retaining 98%. That's transformation.'

A viral graphic circulating on social media attributed this quote to Elumelu and claimed that Nigeria was losing 97% of its oil production to theft before Tinubu's reforms. However, an examination by PRNigeria found that the figure referred specifically to Heirs Energies' operations, not Nigeria's national production.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) data showed that in 2022, Nigeria lost around 20.9 million barrels (~4.26% of production), and by 2025, losses had declined to 2.04 million barrels (~0.65%).