President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday in Abuja, that the Federal Government will develop a new technology to combat the activities of oil thieves in Nigeria.

Mr. Jonathan made the promise while fielding questions at the second session of the 2015 Presidential Debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group (NEDG), ahead of the general elections.

Mr. Jonathan said the issue of oil theft was a serious challenge that must be dealt with, adding that the government was developing a technology to fight it to a standstill.

He noted that the private sector participation must be encouraged to make the oil sector truly profitable to the point of exporting petroleum products.

“The issue of stealing our common assets; we are developing a technology now, contract have been awarded and we must stop it.

“The issue of downstream is a combination of government and private sector; it has to do with refining, production of fertilizers, petrochemicals.

“The privatised companies of government especially the Eleme Petrochemicals is working very well.

“That is a big success story as the Eleme Petrochemicals was abandoned but now it is one of the biggest in the World.

“They are planning to expand and bring in fertiliser production into it,” the president said.

He said that the government planned to liberalise the downstream sector for more private sector participation in the exportation of petroleum products.

According to him, the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the entire sector will have to be unbundled even without the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).