Tag: crude oil theft

Crude oil theft: Controversy continues to trail contract awarded Tompolo

Controversy to date continues to trail the award of pipelines surveillance contract to Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited (SSNL), a company owned by Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, predominantly referred to by his sobriquet, Tompolo.

Mr Emmanuel Jakpa, a Lead Consultant to Tantita in a statement on Tuesday in Warri was forced to respond to recent comments credited to a group, under the aegis of the “Academy of International Affairs”, a league of ex-ministers and ex-diplomats.

Against the position of the Academy, Jakpa averred that the contract has helped in securing the nation’s oil resources through the discoveries of mind-boggling oil theft covering crude oil and petroleum products.

According to him, the Academy had in a statement called on President Muhammadu Buhari to terminate the pipeline security surveillance contract awarded to the Tantita SSNL.

The statement was issued by the President of the Academy and a former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi.

Recall that Federal Government had sometimes in August 2022 awarded the N48 billion pipeline surveillance contract to Tantita SSNL, the privately-owned company associated with Mr Tompolo.

The Academy had also urged the Federal Government to institute a Judicial Board of Inquiry into oil theft covering crude oil and petroleum products among others in the country.

“It is an exercise in futility to ask some of those suspects involved in oil theft scandal to go round in search of illegal pipelines and oil criminals.

“Tantita SSNL will only present a wishy-washy report that will absolve them from any blame given the antecedence of such private interest in insurgency and militancy in the Niger Delta.

“Rhetorically, is it not a big shame that a private company, Tantita SSNL had to be employed when Nigeria’s security failed.

“President Buhari should institute a Judicial Board of Inquiry into oil theft in Nigeria covering crude oil and petroleum products and among others,” the Academy had said.

Reacting, Jakpa said that Tantita had made mind boggling discoveries about oil theft which has not been refuted by anybody and certainly not the Academy.

“The comment that the award to Tantita SSNL is somehow proof of failure of governance is misconceived and predicated on a faulty premise.

“Few days ago, a little known, but distinguished body, stepped out of the closet and launched an unprovoked attacked on the widely successful surveillance contract awarded to Tantita.

“But, in attacking Tompolo and the good work that Tantita is doing, they shied away from deploying their undoubtedly massive reach in proposing a solution to the hydra-headed problem of oil theft.

“The din arising from calls for the cancellation of this contract continues to rise in spite of the fact that the contract has already justified itself with the big finds of humongous leakages in our petroleum export architecture.

“Will a judicial panel visit the creeks unaided and find the export lines by themselves? The manner of argumentation by these distinguished academicians leaves so much to be desired, it appears to be self-defeating,” he said.

Jakpa said that the fundamental error in the analysis of the group was the notion that awarding a pipeline surveillance contract to a private entity was “a failure of governance” and a slur on institution like the armed forces.

He said that these types of contract had been awarded in the past to privately owned companies.

The lead consultant said that at the moment, virtually every pipeline operator has a private security company contracted to provide security to some pipelines or other production asset.

“The unsavory languages used by the distinguished diplomats in associating Ekpemupolo with the illicit trade is much to be deprecated, moreso, as they have failed to substantiate their allegations,” he said.

Jakpa said that if the Tantita Contract succeeded as fully as hoped, it would shore up the nations revenue to a 100 per cent of the present baseline going by the mind boggling discoveries.

“Even, in far away Israel the matter is being reported in their local news media. The home country of the private security company that was handed a whooping 195 million dollars contract to secure our maritime domain.

“No international affairs expert write to illuminate Nigerians on the advantages or disadvantages of a foreign private company taking responsibility for our maritime security and intelligence gathering,” he said.

November 8, 2022
Crude oil theft: Navy, civil defence raise concern

The Nigerian Navy and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have raised concern on security measures and way forward to tackle the menace of crude oil theft in the country.

The security agencies made this known in Abuja at the ongoing maiden edition of the Annual Energy and Labour Summit being organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).

The PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit 2022 is tagged ‘’Energy Transition and its Effect on Workforce in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector”.

Speaking on the “Menace of Crude Oil Theft, Government Response and the Way Forward” Commodore Stephen Ibrahim, Director of Operations, Nigerian Navy said efforts were on ground for acquisition of more equipment to control the water ways.

He said Nigeria had about 84,000 square nautical lands and one of the largest response along West African coast.

“You can imagine what it takes to maintain 24 hours presence in our waterways. We can never have enough equipment that is why we also complement it with the use of Maritime Domain Awareness Capacity Equipment.

“To maintain these equipment take a lot of resources, to fuel an average ship can take six tankers for it to remain seven days at sea.

“There are other demands that require resources but we try our best to maintain presence at sea.

“We have three operational commands, eastern , western and central naval commands and each has been directed to maintain two capital ships which is also intensive,” he said.

He said the naval officers were constantly trained and retrained while the commands and officials were being monitored through cameras from the headquarters as an oversight function to facilitate effective operations.

“Anyone found wanting for infractions must be surely punished,” he added.

Speaking on the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) named Heroic Idun that entered Nigerian waters on Aug. 8, 2022, he said the vessel was interrogated to find out if it had NNPC Limited approval or regulatory approval to load.

According to him, they discovered that it did not have approval which made the Nigerian naval officials to order the ship to follow them pending when they cleared its presence in Nigeria waterways.

He said the vessel sped up instead of turning while the Captain of Nigerian Naval Ship interrogated the vessel severally which made the ship to respond that it had to get in touch with her agent.

He decried the fact that most times the collaborators could pose a problem to their operations because a Nigerian shipping agent told the foreign ship not to answer Nigerian Navy.

He said that the vessel never loaded but came to load and was intercepted, arrested and was still in Equatorial Guinea custody while efforts and talks were ongoing to repatriate it to Nigeria for queries with different charges.

“A decision was being made not to sink her, a large carrier of millions of metric tonnes of crude to avoid collateral damage rather we allowed it to go into the next country for interception.

“The best option we could have is that among the coast of Golf of Guinea countries, we have the under architecture, a collaborative effort among the coastal Naval officers where we exchange information on piracy and vessels.

“So when this vessel continued speeding, we transferred the information to the Equatorial Guinea that the vessel refused to stop and was leaving our waterways, then entering theirs because the vessel already reported to International Maritime Bureau that she was under pirate attack.

“We are trying to keep a clean slate of not having a pirate attack on our waters,” he added.

He further explained that the vessel did not load adding that the naval headquarters had frowned and dispelled that information which kept on coming that it loaded three million MT crude.

Speaking on the vessel which was recently destroyed in Warri due to oil theft, he said the decision was taken at the highest and strategic level involving Chief of Defence Staff.

The commodore further said that particular vessel had overtime involved in infractions, adding that any vessel being used to do illegal business could be destroyed lawfully to serve as deterrent to those involved in illegal activities.

On technology deployment, he said technology was always evolving, adding that the NNPC Limited had a control centre which was being operated on collaborative effort to tackle oil theft.

He said the navy would continue to explore options of using technological equipment to monitor oil thefts in collaboration with other security agencies and international partners.

Dr Benito Eze, Assistant Commandant General, Directorate of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure, NSCDC while speaking on the way forward, said gradually it was going into electronic surveillance to effectively manage the menace.

Speaking from NSCDC perspective, he recommended full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act 2022 to get the involvement of the host communities for provision of legal governance and fiscal framework.

He equally called for full deregulation of the industry by removal of the petroleum subsidy and payment of statutory percentage to the host communities.

October 20, 2022
Tompolo is new Minister, NNPC GMD, Head Navy, DSS and Custom – By Mideno Bayagbon

By Mideno Bayagbon

(mideno@thenewsguru.ng)

ONE hundred days after General Muhammadu Buhari became president, Femi Adesina, his Special Adviser on media gleefully announced that a new Sheriff was in town. He told the world that corruption had nose-dived and taken a flight on the assumed body language of the President. Almost seven years and seven months later, with corruption more emboldened and running riot, I am happy to announce that Buhari, dressed in that borrowed robe by Adesina has come out to denounce him and cede the position to the new kid on the block: Government Ekpemupolo, otherwise known as Tompolo. He is the new Sheriff who has generously acceded to receiving only a monthly N4 billion salary to do wonders in the creeks. And what wonders he has started doing.

Tompolo, before now, a feared Niger Delta militant and severally a fugitive from justice, has generously accepted a waiver on his warrant of arrest from President Buhari and his All Progressives Congress, APC. What is left now is for him to be crowned the new Petroleum Minister. I dare say he should also be begged to combine this role with being Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Chief of Naval Staff, DG DSS and DG Customs. The reason is simple. What the combined occupants of these offices failed to achieve all these years, Tompolo has done in less than two months after they ceded their duties to him. Tompolo has put up a typical Nigeria drama and we are all entranced in charmed guffaws.

Mercifully, the Petroleum Minister, Muhammadu Buhari; his deputy, Timipre Silva; the GMD NNPC, Chief of Naval Staff, DG DSS, DG Customs, etc., have not succumbed to shame, but have been typically Nigerian. Thank God we are not in climes where occupants of these offices would have been sacked, or think it wise to resign from office. In our well known culture, none of them will resign or be sacked or arrested. None will submit themselves to investigation and, possibly, trial for their role in the humongous thievery which over the years has seen between 400,000 and 600,000 barrels of crude oil being stolen daily. No one will hold them culpable even if for negligence!

Instead we are expected to clap for their courage. We are expected to salute their boldness in going on photo-ops visits to the creeks of the Niger Delta as soon as Tompolo “discovered” hacked production and export pipelines. We are supposed to be impressed and should laud them. We should know, it is not them or their associates; it is not their conniving ignorance or deliberate blind eye but spirits and gods headquartered in Abuja, Lagos and other power bases who apparently rigged the pipelines. They, on whose table the buck stops, have gone beyond joining the rest of us in impotent rage at the billions of dollars the nation is losing monthly to oil thieves, and have gone themselves on sight seeing visits. That should convince us they truly mean well.

They know that the right impression, in the right quarters, is all they need to continue to enjoy their exalted offices. That is why it is foolish not to know that they want us to believe that they want an end to the sweet, stolen crude; it does not oil theirs and their friends private pockets. They are adept players of the Nigerian game, to wit, that ordinary Nigerians deserved to be easily fooled. A little gimmick here and there; ethnicity here and religion thrown in there and Nigerians will move on to rant about other issues. They never seriously expect our almighty government officials to be punished . We are not a land of consequential actions visited on infractions.

Knowing that Nigerians are easily fooled, rushing to the creeks to display manufactured surprise that such theft is being carried out so openly is a classic act. That way, government officials are absolved. No impudent need to lie to Nigerians that the shut eyes of the President, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, the DG of DSS and Customs, the Navy and all the military forces which swarm the oil producing creeks, are responsible. Of course with the media attention on the photo opportunities, and Nigerians being condoning humans, no further action is required. No investigations should unnecessarily be expected as to the true identity of those responsible for this astonishing economic crime. No arrests, no trial or any further action is required. That is why the Petroleum Minister, President Muhammadu Buhari should not dignify the public shock and anger, that is why he should not come out to show he is aware of the goings on, and or to make any statement. What can Nigerians do but talk and talk and move on?

Sheriff Tompolo too is a typical Nigerian business man, that is, when he removes his militancy gear. He too understands Nigeria so very well. By pointing out a few of the points where crude oil is stolen, and with the collaborating appropriate authorities having visited and made empty speeches, it is over. Tompolo now knows he is well secured in his contract which had earlier unnecessarily generated a lot of criticism. That is, until he decided to shut the mouth of critics with a peep into the humongous thievery, no, self help, going on in the creeks. Mistake we make is to believe that the current exposure should lead to a stop of such nefarious activities.

Let’s take a few steps back. The authorities have been lamenting that a large part of the crude oil being produced in Nigeria is stolen. Well established syndicates, who are ghosts and spirits, are reaping between $40 million to $60 million daily. And the government with all its security forces, with all its intelligence and surveillance officials and equipment is not expected to track and arrest them. Mathematically, it takes between only 20 to 60 huge ships carrying between one to three million barrels each, coming in daily, to ferry the 400,000 to 600,000 barrels of stolen crude away. This is even against the backdrop of the NNPC, under the Buhari government, could only buy and install a N50 billion surveillance equipment to confront the daily self help.

This is akin to, and yet diametrically the opposite of what some ignorant Nigerians call a huge scam that is fuel subsidy. Nigerians must not forget it is not a Buhari government creation. Under the past governments it was rife. But under this one, the nation is said, incredibly, to be powering its vehicles with only 102 million litres of petrol daily. As a result, as we should expect, subsidy ran, and still is running, into trillions of Naira yearly. That is, until, by some magic fiat, the president ordered the NNPC to reduce it to 60 million litres daily. This is laudable even if 15 months earlier, even with the scam fully in place, subsidy was paid on only 38.5 million litres daily.

We ought to celebrate the impunity, the connivance of the syndicate in government and their collaborators. They sensibly only ballooned the subsidy payment to only 102 million litres. Think about it, If 40 million litres of imported petrol, which the NNPC Group Managing Director told the nation, not too long ago, is daily smuggled across the Nigerian borders into neighbouring countries, shouldn’t we congratulate the appropriate authorities? Assuming, but not conceding, that this is true, for this huge trans-border smuggling, 3200 tankers of 30,000 litres capacity each are required, daily. These trucks, their owners, drivers and funders are also spirits beyond the ordinary eyes of the NNPC and the security forces. Only the truly unpatriotic will ask how much lies a people can tolerate.

That is why what is left now, is for another annual N48 billion contract, akin to the one given to Tompolo, to be awarded to one of a troublesome person up north to help monitor and curtail the activities of the spirits who bring in 3200 fuel tankers into the country daily and abscond with 40 million litres. With Tompolo handling the crude oil thefts and this fellow in the north handling fuel smuggling, two of our major economic bleeding points would have been plugged.

Try not to cry. We are a house of comedy.

October 19, 2022
OIL THEFT: Nigeria now Africa’s fourth largest oil producer

Nigeria’s crude oil output hampered by theft has fallen from 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) at the start of the year to 900, 000 bpd as of September 2022, plunging the country to fourth place among largest oil producers in Africa, behind Angola, Algeria and Libya.

Historically, Nigeria has been the largest exporter of oil in Africa, even though a lack of infrastructure has long hindered Nigeria from being able to export at 100 per cent capacity. In recent times, oil production in the country typically varies between 1.4 and 1.6 million bpd.

Theft of oil in Nigeria is not a new problem but has grown over the last two decades. Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mele Kyari, claimed Nigeria was losing up to 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The implication of this startling revelation is that Nigeria is losing more than half of its production, as the unaccounted 600, 000 bpd is 67 per cent of the current 900, 000 bpd output, presenting a bleak future for the most populous country in Africa.

Nigerian authorities are worried over this disturbing record as the National Assembly considers the country’s 2023 appropriation bill which is predicated on a daily oil production estimate of 1.69 million bpd, with a projected N1.92 trillion oil revenue.

But Kyari has said that the country was not helpless and recent clampdown on oil bunkers was yielding progress. A total of over 3.76 million litres of crude oil and 458,000 litres of Automotive Gas Oil have been recovered, thereby denying oil thieves a total of over N2.1 billion worth of stolen crude oil and products.

“What is most difficult to manage today and daring for us to live with is the issue of crude oil theft, (but) we’re not helpless and our efforts are paying off,” Kyari said.

October 15, 2022
Crude oil theft: Shell discovers more illegal connections on export pipeline

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) says it has discovered illegal connections on the onshore section of the 48-inch Forcados export pipeline.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Shell made this known while saying it will resume crude oil exports at the Forcados oil terminal by October ending when ongoing repairs would have been completed.

The Forcados Oil Terminal, operated by the SPDC, is where the Afremo A Platform, a platform where crude oil theft has been reported, is located.

The Forcados export terminal typically exports around 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The SPDC declared a Force Majeure on oil exports from the terminal in August.

Force Majeure is a legal clause inserted in contracts to absolve parties from liabilities in the event of circumstances beyond their control.

SPDC’s Media Relations Manager, Abimbola Essien-Nelson on Wednesday disclosed that the illegal connections were discovered on the 48-inch Forcados export pipeline during surveillance.

Essien-Nelson stated that in addition to the repairs, SPDC is working to remove and clamp theft points on the onshore pipelines. She stressed that active illegal connections to SPDC’s joint venture production lines and facilities in the western Niger Delta and inactive illegal connections would be removed.

“This is to ensure full crude oil receipts at the terminal. This scheduled programme is continuous as new illegal connections are identified during surveillance of pipelines.

“An example of such illegal connection is that on the onshore section of the 48-inch Forcados export pipeline which is currently not active and has no sign of leak at the interconnection point,’’ she stated.

Essien-Nelson reiterated SPDC’s commitment to running its assets safely, reliably and in accordance with globally-accepted standards.

“SPDC continues to work tirelessly, alongside government and other partners towards the eradication of crude theft from its infrastructure,” she stated.

October 12, 2022
Crude oil theft going on for about 50 years now – Chief Clark

Elder statesman and Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark has said that crude oil theft in Nigeria has been going on for much longer, for about 50 years, contrary to the position held by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Chief Clark made this disclosure at a news conference on Monday in Abuja, describing crude oil theft as a criminal act and calling on the federal government to institute a judicial inquiry to investigate oil theft in the country.

He said that the investigation to the matter must be full, open and comprehensive if there was sincerity to unravel what was going on.

The elder statesman said: “My attention and that of the entire country have been drawn to the recent discovery of a large scale and sophisticated oil theft machinery going on at the deep swamps at Yokri, close to the Forcados terminal in Delta.

“According to reports, high powered technological engineering expertise is applied to steal crude oil from the Forcados line.

“This is transported through a four-kilometre pipeline to a platform in the sea, which belongs to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), and its partners.”

Clark further cited the report saying that about 200 hundred barrels of crude oil were been stolen from there every day, and that this has been going on since 2014.

“According to NNPCL, this is part of the 470 thousand barrels of crude oil that is being lost every month, amounting to 700 million Dollars.

“Although, the NNPCL thinks these have been going on in the past 20 years, some of us have always insisted that this oil theft has been going on for much longer, for about 50 years.”

He said that the illicit four kilometers pipeline through which crude oil was being siphoned indicated that oil theft was being perpetuated by some mafia-like groups, with the connivance of some people in the oil industry.

“What is going on is a sophisticated criminal act, carried out by a syndicate,” he said.

Clark further said that the investigation must uncover all government officials including top officials of the NNPCL and their collaborators, who had inflicted such magnitude of harm on the country, and on the Niger Delta communities.

“It is dangerously incredible that crude oil theft, in spite all the securities around, has assumed wider dimension to the extent that the quantity of crude oil we export today is less than the quantity being stolen by a gang of thieves of various designations.”

October 11, 2022
JUST IN: Peter Obi raises alarm, alleges plans to have him in detention

Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr Peter Obi has raised an alarm, alleging plans to have him put in detention ahead of the 2023 elections for speaking out against crude oil theft in the country.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Mr Peter Obi disclosed this during an interactive session at an event put together by Oxford Africa Society, the umbrella body for all African students at the University of Oxford.

Obi, who spoke on “Trends and Prospects of Nigeria’s Economy: Broader implications For Africa’s Development”, disclosed that the ultimate plan was to silence him from talking about the menace of crude oil theft in the country.

The former Anambra State Governor had been vociferous about the stealing of Nigeria’s crude oil amid dwindling revenue in the coffers of the government. He has accused people in the government of colluding with external influence to steal the country’s crude oil, stressing that there was no way crude oil could be stolen from Nigeria, with the authorities knowing about it.

“I have said it everywhere that oil in Nigeria is being stolen by people in the government. Nobody can steal oil; it is not sweet; you can go into a grocery shop and steal something and put it in your pocket and go away; you can’t steal oil like that.

“For you to steal oil, a ship has to come into your territorial waters, load the oil and no ship can go into a nation’s territorial waters without the approval of its Navy. When you load it, for you to leave, you have to have approval. And everybody knows where every ship is on the surface of the earth. It is something that is recorded.

“So, if somebody is able to take away oil, there is high-level connivance between external and internal people who have organized for the oil to leave; and you can even trace the oil to where it is offloaded. So, it is not an easy thing to steal. It can only be done officially and that is it,” Peter Obi said at the event held on Friday.

He went further: “Again, it is worrisome because if you think of the amount of money that we are losing; when we need; again, look at our exchange rate; when we need every dime, we are losing a huge amount of money, even when all the monies won’t come to us. I always tell people about what happened in July and August, we are operating a high-level of budgetary deficit.

“Between January 1st of this year and about 30th of April, first four months, our revenue was in the region of about 1.6 trillion and we say expenditure was about 4.7 trillion. So, we had a deficit of almost 3.13 trillion in terms of Naira. But in two months, we lost almost 2.83 trillion.

“In July, our oil production was on average 1,083,000. Our quota is 1.8 million. So, every day we lost 717,000 barrels. That is what we didn’t produce. So, if you check it in one month, it was about 22,227,000. At the average price of 110 dollars in July it was 2,445,000,000 dollars. If you multiply that with 550, I do not want to use the official rate, it gives you about 1,344,750,000,000. That is what we lost in one month in July.

“In August, that situation was worst. We were producing 975,000. We were losing 825,000 every day. Multiply by another one month, we lost about 25 million barrels in August. At average price of 100 dollars, its 2.5 billion dollars. Again, multiply by 555, its about 1.4 trillion.

“So, if you put these two together in two months, you lost about 2.8 trillion. You had a deficit of about 3.1 trillion in four months. Aggressively, we are supposed to pursue this and considering that we need every dollar now.

“That is why I said its official stealing. Because if it is not official stealing, we have 200 million in population. We have about 60% youth unemployment, which is about 20 million youths, who don’t know where the next meal will come from; is it not pipeline, we go and stand everybody on the line there, and make sure that nobody takes one barrel of it. I am prepared to go and stand on the line; all of us because this is the only resources we have.

“But because people who are in government, they are stealing it, they will not want to. And when you say it, everybody is looking for where to put Peter Obi in detention; this man is causing trouble. Since we know this thing is missing, let all of us go and man the pipeline. Is it not pipeline? If we stand there, who will take it? They don’t want us to do it because people know those who are taking it. So, it is very easy”.

October 9, 2022
Senate President laments loss of 1 million barrels of crude oil daily

The President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan says Nigeria loses one million barrels of crude oil daily to crude theft.

He made the remarks at the presentation of the 2023 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Friday.

Lawan said that the Nigerian economy was still challenged by dearth of revenues and the situation was worsened recently, culminating in the loss of one million barrels of crude per day.

He said: “Translated into monetary terms, our loss is monumental. The large scale and massive stealing of our oil is concerning as this reduces drastically, the revenues available to government.

“With conflicting figures, projections have put our losses from this malaise at between 700, 000 to 900, 000 barrels of crude oil per day, leading to about 29 to 35 per cent loss in oil revenue in the first quarter of 2022.”

The senate president also said that the figure represented an estimated total revenue fall from N1.1 trillion recorded in the last quarter of 2021 to N790 billion in the first quarter of this year.

“The figures show we are not able to meet the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) daily quota of 1.8 million barrels per day.

“I consider the oil thieves the worst enemies of our country. The thieves have declared war on our country and our people.

“I strongly feel that if we do not take the necessary measures to stop the thieves immediately, our economy will be devastated, as efforts to provide infrastructure and diversify the economy will be thwarted.

“The idea of deploying our revenues from oil and gas to support diversification into real sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, mining etc is now under serious threat.

“It is time to take drastic and desperate measures against the thieves,” Lawan said.

He said the situation had become more worrisome if factored in, an estimated budget deficit of N7 trillion with its grim prospect of increasing to about N11.30 trillion, as presented in the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).

The senate president, however, said that the budget deficit could be reduced by stopping the theft.

“We can also consider other options to source more revenues for government through the review of waivers and concessions government has granted to the tune of N6 trillion,” he added.

Other options, he said, included removing some major revenue generating agencies from direct funding by placing them on cost of collection of revenues, as was done for the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

“In this regard, agencies like Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), etc can be given the encouraging cost of collections of revenues,” he said.

October 7, 2022
Crude oil heist: What is NPPC Limited not telling Nigerians?

Recently, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari announced the discovery of an illegal oil pipeline that is routed into the sea and used to steal crude oil from Nigeria.

TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the discovery has been touted as the biggest crude oil heist in the country.

Narrating how the illegal oil pipeline is routed to steal crude oil from the country, Kyari said “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”.

He added: “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”.

Kyari also said that while thieves often tap land-based pipelines to siphon oil undetected, an illegal line in the ocean is highly unusual and suggests a more sophisticated theft operation.

However, checks by TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) indicate that a case of an illegal pipeline routed into the ocean has been reported as far back as 2017.

The checks follow a documentary released by Channels TV, which unearthed Afremo A Platform, owned by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a local subsidiary of Shell, as the point from which crude oil is stolen from the country.

EXCLUSIVE: NNPC, Security Operatives Uncover Illegal Pipeline Used To Steal Oil For Nine Years pic.twitter.com/gCPb9YlV13

— Channels Television (@channelstv) October 7, 2022

TNG reports that the Afremo A Platform is located in the Forcados (Estuary and Afremo) Offshore Oil Field. Forcados Offshore Oil Field is operated by the SPDC. The Forcados export terminal typically exports around 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Afremo A Platform || Photo: Strides

In 2017, ten (10) suspected oil thieves on board MT TECNE Vessel were arrested by the Nigerian Navy while they were siphoning crude oil into the vessel from the Afremo A platform. The suspects were one Nigerian, two Pakistanis, three Ghanians, one Indonesian, one Beninois and two Ukrainians. TNG gathers that the suspects were eventually handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.

On their modus operandi, findings reveal that the vessel used in siphoning crude oil from the Afremo A Platform goes into the high sea during the day, and come late in the night to connect to the jacket to siphon crude oil.

That same year, the suspects were arraigned in court and remanded in a prison in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by a Federal High Court Presided over by Justice J. K. Omotosho. Some suspects arrested and arraigned in court for siphoning crude oil from the Afremo A Platform were eventually jailed for 7 years.

The foreigners are two Pakistanis: Mohammed Ejaz, Nasser Khan; two Ukranians: Oleksandr Nazarenko, Oleksandr Kashernvi; one Ghanaian: Romeo Annang, and one Indonesian: Fredrik Fatin Omenu. Their Nigerian counterpart: David Otuohi bagged same jail term with them.

However, shockingly, they were given the option of N2 million fine. Meanwhile, the company involved in the crime: Asztral Shipping Corporation SA was wound up by the court while the vessel carrying the offensive crude oil: MT TECNE, a.k.a MT STAR (Vessel) was forfeited to the Federal Government.

The questions Nigerians are asking are: “how come the NNPC is just announcing the discovery”, “why is the NNPC announcing the discovery as though it was made yesterday”, “who are the thieves”, “what happened to the suspects arrested”, “what about the option of fine”, “who are their sponsors”, “is the Afremo A Platform being used to siphon crude oil again in recent times”.

October 7, 2022
Petroleum upstream commission moves to enhance national crude oil production

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has expressed determination to take bold and revolutionary steps, using a non-kinetic approach, to address the challenges of crude oil theft, improve national crude oil production and save the country’s economy from further degeneration.

This was contained in a statement released on Tuesday by Gbenga Komolafe, the Commission’s Chief Executive. He stated that although NUPRC is not an operator/producer, it has a statutory responsibility as a regulator to probe into the situation and seek drastic solutions to the challenges as the current situation has seriously affected the country’s economy and posed a huge challenge to the funding of the national budgets.

The statement reads: “The Commission will do everything within its authority to challenge the narrative and halt further degeneration by ensuring transparency in hydrocarbon accounting.

“One of the steps, in line with its technical and regulatory powers, is to probe into the operational and commercial activities of exploration and production companies operating within the country to ascertain the level of compliance with the terms and conditions in their operational contracts, as well as the challenges impeding expected deliveries.

“The Commission will particularly be interested in the mode of operation of the companies in relation to the approvals as per their operational licences, the level of conformity with the technical provisions and production terms, their level of investments to enhance capacity utilization, and the challenges they are facing, especially those contributing to the current unacceptable situation.

“Beginning Wednesday September 28, the Commission will be engaging all the exploration and production companies individually to get to the root of the current situation as it believes strongly that there might be more fundamental issues in the industry affecting expected output and deliveries beyond the much touted issue of crude theft.

“Already invitations have been extended to all the operators for the engagement during which they would be expected to present their work programme performance, acreage status, divestment plans (if any), field development plan (FDP) implementation status, Upstream investment in the last five years, exploration activities including geophysical acquisition/processing/re.processing, leads and prospects maturation plans; and exploratory wells drilled in the last five years.

“Also during the engagements, the companies would be required to present their reserve status; life index, current reserves replacement ratio (RRR) and reserves growth strategy (RGS); status of Joint Venture/Production Sharing Contract activities, including ongoing facility projects, number of drilled wells, re-entry applications and approvals grafted in the past five years; shut-in wells, their potentials and reactivation plan(s) and expected incremental volumes; technical allowable/production performance and production optimization strategy, including production profile for the last ten years; status of production facilities, as well as unit technical cost of production on field basis.

“The Commission would also insist on knowing their gas development strategy, gas reserves commitment status and domestic gas delivery obligation performance; status of utilization activities (if any); crude oil evacuation route and exported volumes from January this year, status of statutory payments as well as the challenges they are facing in the course of their operations.

“The move by the Commission is to ensure transparency and accountability in the industry to guarantee effective operation and output delivery in the interest of the country’s economy and the benefit of the investors and industry operators”.

September 28, 2022