Why illegal oil bunkering persists

The trend of sabotaging the national economy through illegal refining of crude oil, otherwise known as oil bunkering, appears unending in the Niger Delta region as syndicates operating the illegal business devise new means of survival on a daily basis, despite the efforts of the Nigerian government to tackle the problem. 

Weekend Trust gathered that the syndicates are made up of people from all sectors of the economy, including the locals, traditional rulers, clergy, security operatives, staff of oil companies, among others. 

The business of crude theft and illegal oil refining is also fast becoming a booming venture in the region, with many of the youths aspiring to go into the business of supplying illegally refined petroleum products, popularly known as ‘kpofire’ in parts of the country. 

Despite efforts by successive Nigerian governments to curb the ‘illegal business’, the cartels operating it are undaunted, taking advantage of the terrain and conspiring with compromised security agents in the region to continue with their sabotage. 

Weekend Trust learnt that each day, oil companies in Nigeria lose between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels of oil to theft, which also account for almost 15 per cent of the country’s 2.4 million barrels per day production capacity. 

Bunkering involves oil theft, including the diversion and smuggling of oil and the unauthorised loading of ships. It involves tapping into oil pipelines and transporting the stolen oil elsewhere to be sold internationally or refined locally. To access the oil, a small group of welders will puncture a pipeline and establish a tapping point from which the group operates. 

Though most of the refining sites are located in the creeks and forests in the riverine areas, these activities occur throughout the areas where pipelines are located – in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Abia states – thereby causing environmental pollution in the Niger Delta region. 

Oil export revenue accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s total government revenue and 95 per cent of the country’s export income. A loss of 300,000 barrels a day costs the government roughly $1.7 billion a month. 

Residents of some communities in Bayelsa State, where these oil bunkering activities are being carried out, told Weekend Trust that it would be difficult to stop oil theft and illegal refining in the Niger Delta, as some of those who are supposed to enforce government laws are complicit.

 

An illegal bunkerer shares his story 

An illegal oil bunkering site operator in Biseni community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State told our correspondent, on condition of anonymity, that illegal oil bunkering has supply chains and is aided by influential people in society. 

Also, Michael Lawrence (not real name), a graduate of Microbiology, said difficult economic realities frustrated him, which was why he abandoned his certificate and found a job as a motorcyclist (Okada rider). He plies his new trade in Oyigbo, Eleme and Odagwa Etche areas of Rivers State. The Okada business, he said, connected him to a friend who introduced him to oil bunkering. 

Our correspondent hired Jackson to convey him to Odagwa Etche on his bike, and in the course of the journey, Jackson engaged him in a conversation about how he was introduced to oil bunkering. Jackson converted his bike’s fuel tank into a 20-litre tank in which he siphoned crude oil from one of the ruptured oil facilities in Odagwa Etche. 

He transports the stolen crude oil to one of the illegal refining camps in Oyigbo, where crude oil is stored in storage tanks. The preserved crude oil is then refined into condensed fuel through a locally fabricated furnace and sold to designated buyers. 

But how Jackson was able to maneuver the watertight military outpost in Asa Oyigbo axis beats the correspondent’s imagination. About four military outposts are mounted from Odagwa link road to Asa Oyigbo axis. 

“Oga, let me be honest with you, this Okada business is not what gives me money. I was introduced to oil bunkering by a friend when I was becoming depressed, as after graduating from the university with a BSc in Microbiology, I could not get a job. The friend introduced me to oil bunkering. I work with a cartel in the Etche axis that specialises in oil bunkering. 

“This fuel tank in my bike does not supply fuel to the bike. I reconstructed it to take as much as 20 litres of crude oil. I did another reconstruction that supplies fuel directly to the bike carburetor. I use the reconstructed tank to carry crude oil and kerosene, depending on the one that is available. I did all this to beat the security checks along the route. 

“Each time I approach the security outpost manned by soldiers, they give me a free pass because they cannot, in their wildest imagination, suspect that the bike’s fuel tank is carrying another thing. I take the product, if it is crude oil, to a dump site in Oyigbo, where it’s refined into petroleum products. In a day, I convey as much as 100 litres of crude oil because the tank can take as much as 20 litres at a go,” Jackson stated.

The motorcyclist said he makes as much as N500,000 from the illegal business every month.

 

President of MOSOP speaks 

Fegalo Nsuke, the president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said, “The business of oil theft has become very sophisticated and is said to involve experts, government, military and staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and other multinational oil companies involved in oil exploration. Despite the involvement of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC), the criminal activities have continued and will continue to thrive until the people rise against the cartels responsible.” 

“First, it is big business and very attractive, so people will continue to take the risk to do it. Secondly, the security forces have been complicit, and no one has been held accountable. For example, the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, once raised an alarm over crude oil theft in parts of Ogoni and we have no idea if any action was taken against the cartels responsible because that business continues to date.

“Thirdly, the people have not taken responsibility to stop it because what they are used to is a corrupt system that does not benefit them. So, for the people, ‘why fight to further enrich a corrupt system’? The solution will lie in how much the government is able to build trust and confidence in the people to make them defend their public wealth. Government spending should be prudent, and the income of public officers should be cut to increase expenditure on social security and job creation. People should see that what they do for the country is worth doing, not just to increase how much is available for public officers to loot. 

“The Customs should be reformed and held responsible for the weapons that flow into our country through the borders. We cannot always blame the Ministry of Defence, while leaving out those whose job it is to prevent the inflow of arms that cause the problems.”

 

Dangers involved 

A former operator of an illegal refining site in the Igbogene/Okaki axis of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, told Weekend Trust that he had to abandon the illegal business because of the risk involved. 

He said, “Though there is money in the business, whenever there is a fire outbreak, hardly anybody in the camp survives. We are not even afraid of the government’s security forces because we have our channels and the protection to operate. 

“Bunkering is a very lucrative business; it will be very difficult to stop. Whenever you see those camps destroyed or products burnt by the security forces, maybe it’s because the operators did not do the groundwork well. 

“Besides, these camps are in the swamps and creeks, which are difficult to penetrate. Crude oil is taken from the pipelines on the high sea, and the terrain is also difficult for security forces. It’s not only that the business itself is risky, but there’s also the pollution it brings to the environment. 

“After the cooking (refining), we get cover to move the products to any part of the country and even outside. The business is not only about cooking the crude oil; there are some operators who take the crude and sell it for refining abroad, so the business is a chain,” he said. 

Also speaking, an indigene of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, where the first oil well was discovered in 1956, Comrade Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli, said oil bunkering involves the vandalisation of pipelines and other instruments to facilitate the theft of crude oil that is either sold in its raw state to foreign allies or agents, or locally refined and sold to the local market, perpetrated by a chain of well-organised syndicates in connivance with staff of IOCs and military personnel who are charged with the duties and responsibilities of securing the pipelines and other facilities. 

Ikuli, who is also the National President of the Niger Delta Non-violence Agitators Forum (NDNAF), explained that crude oil bunkering and illegal refining are among the greatest evils perpetrated by economic saboteurs against the government and people of the oil producing communities. 

He said: “Beside the millions, if not billions, of naira that the government  loses in revenue due to illegal bunkering activities, it is contributing in no small measure to the prevalent environmental genocide that the IOCs are carrying out in the Niger Delta region. 

“There are various layers, stages and types of bunkering taking place daily across the country, especially within the oil-producing communities and states. While the people of the localities are involved in the stealing of small quantities that they refine and sell, the major bunkering is done by highly placed individuals, including people in government and even in the military. 

“Those in this category use big vessels to illegally lift crude oil from different oil facilities, which they take out of the country in collaboration with highly placed security personnel who give them cover. 

“It is a generally known fact that no vessel enters or leaves the Nigerian waters without the knowledge of the Nigerian Navy (NN). Sadly, vessels loaded with illegal crude leave this country daily without being apprehended, except for the few that are often used to do media dressing. 

“As long as corruption is allowed to continue to walk naked on the streets of our towns and villages due to our weak judicial system and law enforcement processes, crude oil bunkering will continue to thrive because offenders are not handed the necessary punishments due to our selective justice system.”

 

A traditional ruler gives perspectives 

King Bubaraye Dakolo, the Ibedaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom and Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of Chiefs, whose domain hosts most of Shell and other multinational oil companies’ facilities, said illegal refining thrives in the Niger Delta because the authorities are putting all their efforts into fighting bunkering and oil theft in the wrong direction. 

King Dakolo said, “The authorities are putting all their efforts in the wrong direction. It’s like a young man who wants to go into a church building, and he goes somewhere around where the church is located, and then he faces a sycamore tree and starts knocking at the tree, expecting it to open for him to enter the church. First and foremost, for you to solve the problem, you must diagnose it. So, the federal government or the Nigerian state, as a matter of fact, has misdiagnosed the malady that has to do with oil and gas theft. 

“Let me tell you who an oil thief is, and that the Nigerian state is not chasing oil thieves. They’ve never attempted to even chase one, and that is why, in spite of their so-called best efforts, the Joint Military Operations (JTF), despite being here for over 25 years, has not achieved much. It is more of drama and of not thinking creatively.

“Now, who is an oil thief? An oil thief is someone who has properties in Banana Island, who has properties in Abuja, who has properties in England, who has properties in Europe, or who has properties in America. I’m talking about choice properties. An oil thief most likely will have a private jet, a yacht of his own, or may even have a private refinery abroad. An oil thief cannot spend a night in the swamp of the Niger Delta. If he attempts it, there will be security planes in the air, security operatives left, right and centre, just to guarantee him a short sleep.

 

The oil thieves

“So, what I’m saying here is that the oil thieves do not stay in the Niger Delta; they are abroad, they are in the most-secured places in this country. Anybody who is being accused of oil theft, who is resident in the swamp, is at best a victim of oil thieves. About three trillion litres of oil are stolen, and this is done through very serious international conspiracy, international oil and gas corporations, and then extremely weak regulators in the Nigerian state. 

“So, most of those they are parading are more like victims. Have you wondered why there is no way out of oil theft in the Niger Delta? 

“The Nigerian state has allowed oil theft to go on for decades by not using the oil and gas resources properly for the welfare of the citizens, by not educating the citizens on the value of a clean environment, by not providing petroleum products at affordable costs or rates across the country. They invariably created an opportunity for concocted nonsense in the name of adulterated petroleum products to now be an alternative for petroleum products. That is why the efforts that you called efforts, which I call mis-efforts, have not yielded positive results. 

“If they want to get the right results, they should refine it well and make sure petroleum products are everywhere and I can tell you that in one week, this whole thing will stop because nobody will see stone-free rice and prefer to eat stones with some bits of rice in them if the costs are the same,” he said.

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson, while speaking on the matter said  he does not share the sentiment that Ijaw youths are behind oil thefts in the Niger Delta, saying they lack capacity and technical know-how to do so.

Speaking during a visit to the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Oboro-Gbaraun II, the ex-governor said that oil theft perpetrators resided outside the region.

Dickson, who is currently the senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, said, “Those big players behind the crude oil theft are not from the region but are based in Lagos, Abuja, and other parts of the world.

“Those who, daily, under-declare what is produced; those who have refused to properly monitor and record what is produced for over 50 or 60 years should take the blame.

 

The environmental factor

Lamenting the negative effects of oil theft and illegal oil bunkering, a human rights and environmental activist, Comrade David-West Bekinwariy David, said while criminally minded people are making money to the detriment of other people’s health, the environment is highly polluted. 

He faulted the destruction of seized stolen crude and bunkering camps by the security agencies, instead of arresting people involved. 

“They are in the habit of setting fire on tankers loaded with illegal crude or cooking camps, which has also contributed to polluting and degrading the environment. 

“At a point, we began to have soot everywhere; people could no longer breathe well, and life expectancy in the Niger Delta also reduced. So, the government needs to do more by engaging the locals in securing the pipelines, where these locations are. But for us to say we can completely stop bunkering, I think that would be ambitious; we can only minimise it and continue to carry out sensitisation, preach to the people, and make them see the dangers involved in it and how it is destroying our environment,” he said.

 

Bunkering: How it started 

Weekend Trust findings show that the issue of oil theft and illegal oil refining actually started in Nigeria in the Niger Delta region in the early 1980s, when people living in the area where pipelines criss-crossed began to sabotage them to steal crude oil, which they conveyed in canoes to sell.

Then, the illegal practice was said to be common at the waterfronts in Abonnema in Rivers State, Ole in Delta State, and some places in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

 

NNPCL data on bunkering

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in responding to Weekend Trust request on Bunkering data,  said it has deactivated 7,973 illegal refineries, and has disconnected 5,690 illegal connections in the last one year.

It said a total of 2640 vandalism was reported within the period.

The NNPCL private security force also recovered 2.3 million barrels of crude, 194.4 litres of AGO, 66.7 thousand litres of PMS and 1.2 million litres of DPK.

It further noted that 2,274 suspects have been arrested and handed over to the security agencies.

The report identified the flash points as: Oweza, Ibaa, Okpotuwari, Mgbede, Obiafu, Odogwa, Egbeme, Azuzuama, Abacheke, and Obrikom.

 

Comrade David-West Bekinwariy David sheds more light

He said, “the issue of illegal oil bunkering did not start today. It has been there as far back as the late 80s, but in the 90s, when the militancy era started in the Niger Delta, bunkering became a free-for-all, particularly in Rivers State. Bunkering became the activity of the day, where people used wooden boats to convey the stolen crude. A place called Abonnema Wharf in Rivers State was the epicentre of bunkering. Then, somewhere around Ole too. 

“The Niger Delta youths felt that they didn’t have any other option than to destroy the pipelines so that they could syphon the oil and make money from it. So, bunkering turned out to be the black gold of the youths of the Niger Delta region. Every Tom, Dick and Harry went into it, despite the risk involved. Bunkering got to its peak in the 1990s, but then, the Niger Delta youths didn’t go into oil bunkering without the support of security agents. 

“The bunkering the Niger Delta youths do here is just a very minimal aspect; the main bunkering that takes place at the high seas is the one that we cannot quantify. What about the bunkering they do at terminal points in connivance with the authorities?  We also discovered that security agents are involved. 

Weekend Trust observed that oil spills and explosions are a regular occurrence in the Niger Delta. Pipeline vandalism from bunkering leaves pipes, especially, vulnerable to leaks, spills and major accidents. Shell Petroleum Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and other multinational oil companies claim that 70 per cent of all oil spills over the last five years were the result of sabotage to their facilities. 

In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme found that oil pollution had devastated mangroves, contaminated soil and groundwater, destroyed the fish habitat, and posed a serious threat to public health in Ogoniland. The study concludes that it could take up to 30 years to restore Ogoniland. 

It said the degradation of the environment had reduced arable land for farming and devastated fishing communities. Several people living in the Niger Delta do not have access to clean drinking water and many have reported oil in drinking water sources.

It was gathered that illegal artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta “cook” the crude into separate petroleum products. The end product yields 2 per cent petrol, 2 per cent kerosene, and 41 per cent diesel. The remaining 55 per cent of crude goes to waste, most of which is dumped into the nearby water or into a shallow pit. 

David-West said: “From the way they do it, the environment is highly polluted, while people make money at our expense. Coming to the manner of destruction by the security agencies, instead of arresting these people, they set fire on the tanker loaded with illegal crude and at the cooking site; these also contribute to the devastation of the environment.” 

King Bubaraye Dakolo decried the way the security forces destroy the cooking sites and stolen crude, saying it is depleting the ozone layer and poisoning the people of the Niger Delta. 

He said: “The burning of crude oil and petroleum products found at the bunkering sites of the so-called illegal refineries contributes to the massive pollution of the Niger Delta. There has to be a better way because in trying to solve the problem, you don’t compound it by burning the crude oil. The last time I spoke publicly was when a ship was set ablaze with all its so-called crude. It is bad; an educated, enlightened and well-trained person should not do it. 

“As an adult, if you come here and find money, will you burn it? Won’t you take it to the bank? Why don’t they take the stolen crude to proper refining places? Don’t they know that crude oil costs money? It has value. If you multiply the value of 20 tankers of crude oil, you get a figure in multiple millions of naira, yet, you burn it. Are you not destroying the economy, polluting the environment and endangering the people living there? It’s multiple jeopardy.”

 

Licensing of illegal refining  

King Bubaraye Dakolo, who recently authored a book, ‘The Riddle of the Oil Thief’, said, “I do not subscribe to the so-called licensing of illegal refineries. I see the illegal refinery thing as a disease that has come out of the federal government’s inability to regulate the sector and provide for citizens affordable, quality petroleum products. If the federal government wants to solve the problem, it must make petroleum products available at affordable prices across the country and all of these talks will disappear. 

“Today, the Niger Delta is one of the most polluted places in the world, and it is because of the activities of the oil and gas industry whose major operators are foreign nationals. They come from places where it is forbidden to spill a drop of crude oil without paying dearly for it. If such persons who were brought up to obey the law and respect the environment come to the Niger Delta and become lawless, is it the ones who are trained in lawlessness that you think can safeguard the environment? 

“More so, people have been building refineries for years. So, the direction to go is for the federal government to make the refineries work, make products available, and everything else will fall into place. 

“Licensing illegal refining is not the right thing to do. The right thing is to call on the authorities to do their work. The federal government must ensure that the regulators are adhering to regulations.

“Adulterated products are thriving because there is a demand for them. Once the government makes available the right products, there will be no market for bunkering products,” he stated. 

But Comrade David-West Bekinwariy David and Wisdom Ikuli support the legalisation of illegal refining, saying the expertise deployed by the people operating illegal refining sites should be employed in the mainstream to add to the national economy. 

David said: “Many stakeholders have argued the need for the legalisation of bunkering and the issuance of refining licenses to modular refineries, which we tend to agree with to a very large extent.

“Illegal bunkering and refining are not only destroying the environment; they are killing the entire environment due to the misguided and unguided ways and manners the activities are carried out.

“Legalisation will help the perpetrators put in place remedial measures to clean up the affected environments as against the present hide and seek arrangement that is in place where the operators cannot come to the open to identify themselves due to the security implications. 

“Beside safeguarding the environment, they will also pay the speculated taxes to the government and also embark on some corporate social responsibilities (CSR) to the host communities.” 

 

Why oil bunkering persists 

Weekend Trust gathered that despite efforts by the Nigerian government and the constant destruction of these illegal refining sites by the security forces, criminality still persists in the country, particularly in the Niger Delta region.

An elder statesman Chief Anabs Sara Igbe said oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism will continue in the Niger Delta because of factors like the underdevelopment of oil-bearing communities, that he noted are the critical stakeholders in the oil and mineral resources.

He added: “As long as the oil-bearing communities are underdeveloped, oil bunkering will persist. Secondly, the involvement of prominent people in oil bunkering is another factor. Oil bunkering cannot be sponsored by local people, it needs very experienced and well-connected people who are able to buy pipes, go to the oil wells and pipelines, and install their pipes. These are powerful people working within the oil industry because they have to shut down the pipeline before they can be able to connect theirs. 

“Thirdly, the security agencies are involved in the oil bunkering business; those asked to go and stop them are collecting money from those involved in the bunkering. So, it will be difficult for you to say you want to stop oil bunkering when the security agencies are involved.

“Fourthly, the willpower of the government to stop it. Setting up the modular refineries will go a long way in reducing it. But when that is not done and you allow the oil and gas to pollute the entire environment, soil and seas, the people will continue to fight because they are not happy.”

At Odagwa Etche, our correspondent met a middle-aged man involved in illegal oil bunkering. The man, whose identity is not revealed for security reasons, said almost every family in Odagwa is involved in illegal oil bunkering and refining. 

“The business of oil bunkering was a normal business in Odagwa until the military became aware and started harassing everybody and destroying the illegal refining facilities installed by the different cartels involved. So many families are involved: some have even learned the art of refining crude into fuel through a burner. If you go into the bush, you will discover many reservoirs connected with hoses directly from the oil well heads. The well heads supply crude directly to the reservoirs. There are over 50 oil reservoirs that get crude supply from the ruptured well heads. It’s from the reservoirs that pipes are connected to the locally fabricated burning furnace, which cook and refine the oil into what we call condensed fuel,” he said. 

On how resources were pulled together for the construction of the various burners and tanks discovered on the sites, the source stated, “the business of oil bunkering and illegal refinery is very complicated. It’s not a poor man’s business venture. Big cartels are involved; experts in petroleum engineering, staff of oil companies, the security agencies and top politicians. What the military is doing is just pretense: they know those involved in the criminal activities and they are shielding them from arrest. 

“Since they started destroying illegal refineries, have you heard them mention any big fish they arrested? All they do is to arrest ordinary boys engaged by the cartel to carry out the operation. They would always tell you that they are still tracing the main cartel in the illegal oil bunkering. For how long will they continue to trace them? Why is it that after destroying the sites other ones come up in a couple of days? In Odagwa Etche alone, the military and civil defense have visited the community more than three times and destroyed illegal refinery sites. Why is it that the business has not come to an end, or is it being recycled,” he asked.

 

Our anti-crude oil theft operation yielding results, officers not involved – Navy

Speaking with Weekend Trust, authorities of the Nigerian Navy dismissed the allegations that military personnel were colluding with the crude oil thieves to steal the oil.

The spokesman of the Nigerian Navy, Commodore Aiwuyor Adams-aliu, told our reporter that the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ogalla, had tackled the issue of personnel’s involvement headlong to the extent of posting Navy’s anti-COT operations every day.

“Not true. Certainly not true. Every single day we post our Anti-COT operations, Operation DELTA SANITY. Every single day,” he said.

He added that the naval chief went further to engage all stakeholders in the maritime sector with a view to putting an end to crude oil theft.

 “There are reports in public domain which are the testimony of NUPRC of how Nigeria’s production has increased to 1.6m by July, thanking the Navy for the anti-crude oil theft operation. Let’s  get facts and figures out there.

“On Tuesday, July 30, 2024, the Chief of the Naval Staff hosted over a hundred players in Nigeria’s Maritime Sector, comprising investors, business owners, operators of private maritime security & logistics companies, and regulators.

“These included the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

“During the meeting, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr Mele Kyari stated that Nigeria’s crude oil production output had risen to 1.6mbd.

“The GCEO, who was represented by the Managing Director Pipelines, Mr Folorunsho Karim, commended the efforts of the Nigerian Navy under the auspices of OPERATION DELTA SANITY while stating that ‘…they have been giving us a lot of support and we are having a reduction in oil theft and pipeline vandalism.

“It will interest you to know that over 35 vessels involved in oil theft in the past one year have been arrested”, he said.

 

Nigerian govt, security forces efforts

Not long ago, the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, said its men discovered five reservoirs stocked with 45,000 litres of crude oil each in Odagwa Etche community.

The army alleged that residents of the community had crude oil boiling pots in their respective homes.

The General Officer Commanding 6 Division of the Nigeria Army, Major General Jamal Abdusalam, who conducted journalists round the reservoir site through the Commander of 29 Battalion of the Division, Lt. Col. Ishaya Manga, said the discovery was in continuation of series of operations conducted by the division since February.

The Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) also uncovered and dislodged the activities of men refining crude oil locally and illegally at the cemeteries located in Abalama and Oproama communities in Asari-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Superintendent Olufemi Ayodele, said the uncovering of the illegal bunkering site was possible through credible and sustained intelligence.

 

We have been at the forefront of fighting oil theft – NNPCL

Speaking on the issue, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) Femi Soneye, said, “It’s important to note that NNPC Ltd has been the one raising the alarm about oil theft. 

“The situation became so severe that our production dropped to as low as 800,000 barrels per day. We had to engage a private security firm to assist, and more recently, the GCEO established a war room. Thanks to the combined efforts of the military and private firms, we have now increased production to over 1.6 million barrels per day.

“The Chief of Defence Staff is leading the mission, and we are seeing remarkable results. It would be absurd to suggest that NNPC Ltd staff are behind the crude oil theft. When the issue became overwhelming, we engaged non-state actors, and the positive results speak for themselves. When production went down to 800,000, we were the once shouting”.

The spokesman, however, noted that of the weekly arrests that have been made with the assistance of the private security, none has been prosecuted.

He said: “In November, we caught a vessel, handed it over to the authorities in the full glare of the media. By February this year, the same vessel was caught again in Bayelsa, so, is that the fault of the NNPCL?

“The NNPCL has arrested over 1000 with private security, none of them has been prosecuted. The problem is so huge that it is a national issue.

“There is no country in the whole world where non state actors protect national assets, but here, the NNPCL took it upon itself to guard this national asset.

 “We are quick to make reference to the production capacity of Saudi Aramco, Petrobras and Iran oil company, but there is no single mention of  vandalisation of oil pipes in these countries.”

He further argued that NNPCL officials do not bear arms and in the real sense cannot face the guys involved in the theft.   

 

Contributions from: Sunday Michael Ogwu & Idowu Isamotu