By Adewale Sanyaolu
If the modest progress recorded in recent weeks against monsters stealing crude oil in the Niger Delta is sustained, Nigeria’s oil production figures and revenue currently less than one million barrels per day may be on its way back to making a rebound.
Observers in the industry who believe oil thieves sabotaging the economic fortunes of the country are human, have consistently canvassed a shift in strategy to address the menace.
To put its action to work, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has been engaging stakeholders on the best way possible to halt the national embarrassment.
Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mr. Mele Kyari, in its efforts to end the challenge had engaged security agencies including; the Army, Police, Navy, DSS, Civil Defence, community leaders, CSOs and Governors of the oil producing states among others.
It is indeed glaring that some of these initiatives have started yielding positive results needed to boost oil revenue and reduce the environmental impact of oil theft in communities where these acts are perpetrated.
Although oil theft and vandalism seem to persist across oil fields in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) said it has collaborated with relevant security agencies to clamp down on saboteurs.
Speaking at the Senate’s joint committees on Petroleum (Upstream and Downstream) and Gas last week, NNPC GMD, Mr Mele Kyari, reiterated its collaboration with relevant security agencies to clamp down on saboteurs.
He noted that Nigeria is in a calamitous situation over oil theft, and pipeline vandalism with attendant low production, and that at least 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated.
The NNPCL earlier disclosed that it loses 470,000 bpd of crude oil amounting to $700 million monthly due to oil theft.
At the hearing which lasted over four hours, Kyari said in the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1,561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized and a 4-kilometres illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea – which had been in operation undetected for nine years – detected.
The latest efforts and discoveries by NNPCL to tackle oil theft may not be unconnected with its recent effort to introduce an Application that detects oil theft alongside the engagement of a private security outfit to monitor oil pipelines across the country.
NNPC unveils App to check oil theft
NNPCL last August launched an applications platform to monitor crude oil theft in the country on the sidelines of the signing of renewed Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) agreements between it and its partners in oil mining leases.
The platform ‘Crude Theft Monitoring Applications’ according to NNPC Limited was created for members of host communities and other Nigerians to report incidents of oil theft and get rewarded.
He said the country already lost $1.5 billion so far in 2022 because pipeline vandalism has escalated. Mr Kyari said the country was losing 95 per cent of oil production to oil thieves at Bonny Terminal, Rivers State.
“The actions of vandals on pipelines have become a difficult thing to deal with. There are still ongoing activities of oil thieves and vandals on our pipelines and assets, very visible in the forms of illegal refineries that are continuously put up in some locations and insertions into our pipeline network.
“Arrests have been made and vessels have been arrested by the Nigerian Navy, I commend the Armed forces, in the last three months, they have done substantive work and have destroyed some illegal refineries.
“First, we have created a platform where members of the community and other Nigerians can report whenever incidents of theft occur and also reward them, and keep it confidential and private.
“We at the NNPC will guarantee absolute privacy on any such report that comes and I’m directly managing this myself as no one will be exposed.”
Kyari urged companies to report suspicious sales even in the international arena.
Pipeline surveillance deal records success
In its latest effort to tackle oil theft, NNPCL recently renewed a multi-million dollar pipeline surveillance contract to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited in which a former militant leader and Commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, aka Tompolo has interest in.
The deal with the company to end illegal bunkering, illegal refining and other forms of oil theft in the Niger Delta has started recording some level of progress.
But few months after the deal was brokered, Tantita Limited recorded its first major breakthrough as it discovered an illegal pipeline which has operated for about nine years and directly connected to the high seas.
In a shocking revelation, Kyari narrated how an illegal oil pipeline connecting directly to the high sea was recently discovered.
Kyari said the major oil export terminal that had its products diverted into the sea had been operating undetected for nine years.
The four-kilometre or 2.5-mile connection from the Forcados export terminal, which typically exports around 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, into the sea was found during a clampdown on theft in the past six weeks, Kyari said during a meeting with the Nigerian senate.
“Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented,” Kyari told the lawmakers.
“But in rising up to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPC, has in recent time in collaboration with relevant security agencies clamped down on the economic saboteurs.
“In the course of the clampdown within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1,561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized.
“The most striking of all, is the four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation undetected for nine solid years,” he added.
While the dust generated by the discovery of the illegal pipeline was yet to settle, members of the newly established coastal areas pipeline surveillance team, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (TSSNL), last weekend busted a vessel with stolen Nigerian oil.
Following the discovery NNPCL and other top security agencies reportedly supervised the settling ablaze of the vessel loaded with illegal crude oil from Escravos near Warri, Delta State.
The oil taker, named MT Deinmo, with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) number 7210526, was said to be loaded with an unspecified quantity of crude oil at the time of the arrest last weekend, with an 8-man, all-Nigeria crew.
The vessel according to The Whistler Online was set on fire by security agencies in the presence of the Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investments Management Services, Mr Bala Wunti.
Speaking during an interview shortly after the destruction of the ship, Wunti said the rule of engagement has been strictly adhered to in carrying out the exercise.
NNPCL wants special court for oil thieves
Kyari had last April canvassed the establishment of a special court for prosecution of illegal refinery operators.
The GCEO had while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), decried the rise in crude oil theft in the country.
He disclosed that over $4 billion of the product value was lost to illegal refinery operators in 2021 with another $1.5 billion lost so far in 2022.
He said anytime there is an increase in the price of crude oil in the global market, activities of oil thieves increase, thus causing a decline in production output.
“This is worrisome. There are so many illegal settlements along all our terminals, and the number is increasing everyday. It will be very important if the government sets up a special court for fast trial of illegal refinery operators in this country,” he said.
Kyari blamed the reduction in production output to the “massive act of vandals and thieves,” stressing the need for the government to adopt measures that would cushion the adverse effects of the economic sabotage on the economy.
He lamented the degradation of the environment in oil-producing areas due to the vandals’ activities, saying Illegal oil settlements are dotted across the corporation’s terminals.
Kyari call had earlier being canvassed in 2019 by a 13-man National Executive Council (NEC) sub-committee chaired by Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, mandated to investigate the impact of the attacks on oil installations in the creeks of the Niger Delta has recommended a special court to try oil thieves.
This was even as the committee had then disclosed that Nigeria lost about $1.3 billion worth of crude oil to theft and pipeline vandalism in the first quarter of 2019.
Obaseki said the slow and inadequate prosecution of thieves despite numerous arrests and seizures has continued to encourage the menace.
He lamented that the absence of petroleum products in filling stations in most of the oil producing communities around the Niger Delta make them resort to illegal bunkering and illegal refineries.
Obaseki, however, recommended that there was need to restructure the maintenance and ownership of oil pipelines as a way of tackling the perpetrators of crude and other products theft.
“There should be special courts to trial offenders and also have a special legal task force to coordinate the prosecution of arrested offenders as well as trained special judges to handle cases of oil theft.”