Ben Dunno, Warri
Members of the newly established  coastal areas pipeline surveillance team, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL), at the weekend intensified its searchlight on illegal bunkering locations with the discovery of another platform connected to the 48-inch Trans-Forcados Export Trunk Line in Delta State.
The latest discovery was said to have been made in a joint operations with the military task force based on intelligence gathering on the illegal activities going on in that area for quite sometime now where members of the cartel that specializes in crude oil theft siphoned large quantities into ocean going vessels from where it sailed abroad.
It was observed that the professional manner in which the pipes were clamped on the abandoned platform belonging to Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC) clearly established the case of oil workers collaboration In the crude oil theft in the region as the oil thieves lacks the technical know -how to carry out such fabrication.
The location which was said to have been in use in the last three years was where the members of the cartel openly pump crude oil into their vessels from the nation’s trans-forcados pipeline, located short distance away from a military check point at Ogulaha in Burutu local government area of Delta State.
SPDC operates the Forcados Terminal in Ogulagha which has a nameplate capacity to export 400,000 barrels per day. It takes delivery of crude from the Forcados Oil Pipeline System and is the second largest pipeline network in the oil-producing region after the Bonny Pipeline System in the eastern Niger Delta.
This latest discovery is similar to the earlier one where  4-km pipeline was clamped to the same Trans–Forcados Export Trunk Line and buried underground to siphon crude oil to waiting vessels.
Narrating how the discovery was made to newsmen, a Marine Intelligence Consultant to TSSNL, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, said: “What has happened was that the perpetrators of this organized crime attached pipeline into a Shell Petroleum Development Company 48-inch export line. The crude in this line has been cleaned up and is ready to go.
“So, they tapped into it, the place was initially filled with water, but, technologically, they were able to connect their own pipe underwater”.
“We trotted the line on foot to the point it was tapped, we had to create something on either side of the pipeline so that the water could be pumped out”.
“For days, we pumped the water out before the illegality was exposed. You see that riser behind me is operated by another joint venture company called AGIP, so these fellows piped the crude through the abandoned oil field that belongs to AGIP, which they used to pipe crude oil to the Beniboye Flow Station.
“What happened is that instead of piping crude to Beniboye Flow Station, the oil bunkers export crude”.
‘That particular jacket you see outside there is a very old one, they cut the Agip line, connected their own through the extreme riser out to that other jacket”.
“Then at night, the usual thing happens, which is that they bring ships to that particular platform, connect their modernized lines to the ships, which they bring in, and off they go from there”.
“Well, they are not smarter than Nigeria, NNPCL, Tantita. We discovered this about a week ago, and we had to employ a whole lot of machinery to be able to bring you (reporters) in to see it. It is not a yesterday thing.
“We knew about the platform and started working on it when we had the support of NNPCL and government. Nigeria has suffered enough, we have to stop these illegalities.
“The distance from the illegality to the point we are standing is about one kilometer and from here to the jacket is approximately four kilometers.
“Therefore, what they do… because the whole line is a six-inch pipe,  each time they pump, they open their own valve and the crude stored on this line;  then,  they close if off so that when their ships are sucking, you would not feel the effect from the pressure on the other side”.
“Therefore, it is a smart design, I do not know how long. With the intelligence we have been getting about ships coming to that particular area, which led to this find, it has been going on for a while, more a year perhaps”’
“We share our intelligence with the Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta and Operation Delta Safe.”
It’s a joint collaboration”.
Also speaking, the General Manager of Joint Venture Operations, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS, Zakariya Budawara, said;“NNPCL has been on its toes in trying to bring stability to the host community”.
“And the host community has been helpful in trying to see that we secure all oil and gas facilities, especially the one we saw, which has to do with the crude evacuation line”.
“Today, for me, is just any other day, but we feel that the media should come and see the efforts of the NNPCL, stakeholders, including the community, government security agencies, private and community contractors, especially the one in the Western corridor, Tantita, are making”.
“Tantita has been doing a great job, all these we are doing to assure Nigerians that we are working to curb crude oil theft”.
“We know the direct impact on the revenue and on the people of the host communities and the environment”.
“All you have seen is in demonstration of the collaborative efforts of everybody. Nobody can do it alone; it is the efforts of all the stakeholders”.
“I am here on behalf of the Group Managing Director, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, and his lieutenants.”
Sources hinted that some International Oil Companies, IOCs, oil bunkers, and security officials jointly steal crude oil through the major pipeline connected to the 48-inch Export Trunk Line through an abandoned pipeline belonging to NAOC.
Reacting to the latest discovery, the Oil Spill Victims Initiative, OSPVI, has threatened to sue NNPCL and SPDC over the illegal pipeline connections used to siphon the country’s crude oil.