Aiteo Group is negotiating an alternative financing package that would enable it fund about $5 billion investment to be able to increase its oil production to about 250 000 barrels per day (bpd).This will also grow gas output to about 3 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas. The Managing Director, Eastern Exploration and Production Company, the upstream arm of Aiteo, Mr.Victor Okonkwo, stated this at a forum in Abuja. According to him, there will be a blend of financing options depending on the alternative financing mechanism the company is working out with its joint venture partner. ”As a result of these pipe breakages and oil theft, we have lost over $2 billion in the past four years. This is what we have lost not just as a company but also as a nation”, He noted that Aiteo operates key strategic business of oil infrastructures in Nigeria and a major stakeholder across the energy value chain with huge investments in the country. The company, Okonkwo said, was one of the biggest single investment decision makers up to 2014, when it invested over $2.5 billion in acquiring oil milling lease (OML) 29 asset. The company is Nigeria’s largest indigenous company by production and we are committed to producing between 80,000 bpd and 90,000 bpd. ‘’In the short to midterm, we are going to 150,000 bpd and in the mid to long term we are going to 250,000 bpd, we want to secure energy supply for the rest of Africa and move from fossil fuel to clean fuel”, he stated. He also spoke on the challenges facing the indigenous players such as oil theft and pipeline vandalism. He stressed the need for the Federal Government to look more into securing energy assets. According to him, the company had lost over $2 billion to pipeline vandalism due to frequent attacks on its Nembe Creek Trunck Line (NCTL). He stated that there had been a lot of intrusions in the pipeline leading to outages of the company’s production and sometimes shutdown. This pipeline, according to him, does not only deliver the company’s crude to the terminal but it carries crude for five other companies including Shell. He said the shutdown impacts the firm in financial terms. ”As a result of these pipe breakages and oil theft, we have lost over $2 billion in the past four years. This is what we have lost not just as a company but also as a nation”, he added. ”The consequential royalties and other revenues that ought to accrue to the government were lost just because of the activities of these vandals. That is why we are calling on government to collaborate on finding a lasting solution to this menace”. The Aiteo chief explained that the challenges in the industry call for the need for the Federal Government to conclude on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to secure oil and gas infrastructure.