YENAGOA  – There is no gain saying the fact that the problems of oil theft and illegal refineries in the Niger Delta have been a source of worry to the Federal Government of Nigeria. It has reached an alarming proportion. The menace has kept the country’s economy prostrate.

Lamentably, experts observe that the cases of oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism in the region have been recurring decimals, making headlines almost on a daily basis. And for the Federal Government and the operators of the upstream, particularly exploration and production companies, including oil majors like Agip, Shell, ExxonMobil, TotalEnegies and Chevron, it has been lamentations over huge losses in revenue and assets due to the criminal activities of oil thieves in the swamps of the Niger Delta. Expectedly, some of the International Oil Companies and investors are mulling divestment from onshore to offshore to continue with their operations, following the losses incurred.

For instance, a 2020 Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Report showed that the country’s earnings from the oil and gas sector of $34.22 billion that accrued in 2019 plummeted by 40 per cent to $20.43 billion in 2020. The report also highlighted the fact total crude oil production declined by 12 per cent between 2019 and 2020 as a result of the pervasive incidence of oil theft and other suffocating factors.

Experts have argued that Nigeria has never been so badly hit in terms of oil theft and pipeline vandalism in recent decades since crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity at Otuabagi (Oloibiri) in Bayelsa State.

Figures from industry sources indicate that the country’s economy has been bleeding profusely on account of oil theft and industry-related violence. Investigations show that the country had lost an average of $10 billion to the stealing of crude oil between January and July this year. According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the country loses 470,000 barrels per day of crude oil aggregating to $700 million monthly because of sustained oil theft.

At the Nigerian Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG) 2022 in Abuja, held in July, the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Limited, Osagie Okunbor, while speaking during one of the panel sessions, lamented that the humungous crude losses caused by illegal bunkering had led to the country’s daily oil production declining from 1.8 million barrels per day in the last five years to just a little over 1 million bpd.

He said, “In three to five years, we were brought from 1.8 million barrels a day to a little over 1 million barrels a day and frankly, most of that comes out of deepwater,” noting that the new marginal field licences that would operate the Shell’s Oil Mining Lease (OML) 53 and 57 will contend with difficulties evacuating their products.

“So, our OML 53 and 57 marginal field licences depending on how quickly they can bring production on stream, those who are on land, swamps and shallow water, evacuation is going to be an issue. So it’s an existential issue for us,”Okubor stated.

The Shell chief executive, while narrating how the two very vital pipelines in the country had been shut down with thousands of barrels per day shut-in, further said, “We need to address it (oil theft). If we don’t address it, we can do all the new oil developments, that will continue to occur. But what is really going to move the needle for us in terms of bridging this gap of hundreds of thousands of barrels a day is solving the evacuation problem.”

Disturbed by the haemorrhage suffered by the economy as a result of the pervasive crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government, last August, took a bold step to nip it in the bud. The government, in this regard, awarded pipeline surveillance contracts to some contractors in order to realise the objective behind the decision.

Among the contractors hired is Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a private security firm in which a foremost former agitator and freedom fighter in the region, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, has interest in.

No doubt, the decision of the government through the NNPCL to give the N48 billion worth of pipeline surveillance contract to Tompolo elicited opposition from official and even unofficial quarters.

But the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, explained that the contract was not awarded to Tompolo as an individual but to a company he has interest in. According to him, it had become imperative for the government to hire private contractors to protect its network of pipelines across the nation and save the economy from imminent collapse with serious consequences for the survival of the nation.

Kyari further said that the end-to-end pipeline surveillance required the involvement of private entities and community stakeholders, in addition to the use of security operatives, to achieve much more effectiveness in the strategy adopted by the government.

He said, “What we did is to do three things. First, to ensure the government’s security agencies play their part, we have our Navy, the Army and are doing an excellent job of containing this, but as you do this sustenance is everything and therefore we also decided that we need private contractors to man the right of way and also operate outside the right of way so that they can also join us to manage members of the community

“We don’t have access to that and therefore, we put up a framework where contractors were selected through a tender process for people who can do it, not everyone can do it and Tompolo is just mentioned, we’re dealing with corporate entities.

“He may have interest in the company, we’re not dealing with Tompolo, but we know that he has interests in that company. We know that we’re engaging all other individuals who will be of help to us in this situation. This has happened severally over time and the end result was that it was contained under a process like this and we believe that we are taking the right decision.”

However, Tompolo and his determined security team appear to be making significant progress with the onerous job, raking up mind-boggling discoveries in Delta and Bayelsa States as they move into the creeks to tackle the scourge of oil theft and vandalisation of pipelines.

To demonstrate his mettle and prove his critics wrong, Tompolo, barely three months after his firm was awarded the contract, discovered at least 58 illegal points in Bayelsa and Delta States where crude oil was being siphoned.

Tompolo personally disclosed this in October. But for him, what appears to be the biggest discovery was the 4km illegal oil pipeline in the Forcados axis of Delta. It was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline around the Burutu Local Government Area of the state. Findings indicated that it was connected directly to the sea. Surprisingly, checks showed that the criminal pipeline was installed behind a military security post about one kilometre from the Forcados Export Terminal near Ogulagha.

Further revelations indicated that the criminal tapping was linked to another abandoned pipeline located around the same environment and ironically belongs to one of the IOCs, and it was via this oil firm’s abandoned facility that the oil thieves shipped stolen crude to the sea for loading and movement overseas. From all indications, the conniving multinational oil companies carry out the illicit business with their Nigerian collaborators operating in the western Niger Delta swamps, pumping crude oil to the Forcados oil terminal for exports abroad.

“I think we have found over 58 points that have been tapped in both Delta and Bayelsa states,” Tompolo said, while speaking on the stunning discoveries. His security outfit also alleged that IOCs, personnel of oil firms and security operatives were deeply involved in the illicit business of oil theft.

He said, “You know, we are doing this work together with the security agencies. We are only providing intelligence for the security people to assist to do the work. So, everybody – both the NNPC and others, we are working together in good spirit.”

Already, the NNPCL boss has applauded Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited for its effort, saying that the pipeline surveillance job awarded the private firm was beginning to yield good results.

Kyari, who spoke during a session at a one-day Legislative Transparency and Accountability Summit organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption, in Abuja, stated that the country was benefiting from the initiative.

He rationalised that the funds spent to secure the services of the firm are so insignificant quantum of the value of oil stolen in recent times in the country, adding that Tantita has discovered and destroyed thousands of illegal refineries as well as connection on the main pipeline conveying crude to the terminal for export.

The NNPCL chief executive further noted that the scale of oil theft that the country had recorded was not anticipated, not expected, not thought of. He said, “The scale is enormous. We have seen pipelines taken from our main trunklines into abandoned platforms in which people come to steal oil.”

Kyari and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor, also flew into Delta State from Abuja to personally inspect the discovered criminal breaches and violations around the Trans-Forcados/Ramos trunkline.

“First, the attachments on our Trans- Forcados/Ramos pipeline, which are illegal connections, were professionally done. And the result is that they connected it to an inner case line which will never carry crude under normal circumstances and we have seen that this line flow all the way parallel with the other two active lines into the Forcados platform,”he observed.

He further said, “The CDS has said clearly that he would investigate, and anyone involved in this process, whether from the community members, community contractors, government security agencies, workers of the oil companies, including NNPCL and Shell, will be dealt with.”

The Centre for Human Rights and Anti-Corruption Crusade (CHURAC) has lauded Tompolo for the discovery of the 4km-long criminal oil pipeline connecting stolen crude oil to the Forcados which, it noted, had been in operation for nine years.

The chairman of CHURAC board of trustees, Alaowei Cleric, argued that the unearthing of the theft did not shock many Nigerians in public service, particularly those among the cartels and their foreign collaborators deeply involved in illegal oil bunkering.

He said, “This is just one of the many syndicates all over the region, milking our economy dry. We can’t dispute the NNPC’s claim that Nigeria is losing about 600,000 barrels of crude oil per day to economic saboteurs. Our consolation, however, is that with Tompolo given the contract to secure the oil pipelines, oil thieves are already having a bad day.

“Ethno-religious invectives can now see that NNPC Limited did not err by adopting the methods used in Cambodia and Mexico by hiring private companies to secure the oil pipelines. Tompolo is up to the task and is performing as expected,” he added.

“The choice of Tompolo, he said, is just the perfect choice, and his efforts are results oriented. NNPC Limited should continue to update Nigerians on the successes of Tompolo’s Company’s operations.

“Let the doubters and ethnic irredentists know that Tompolo only wants what is best for the nation. Although other companies have been given the oil pipeline surveillance contract since 2016, no successful outcomes have been noted.”

He pointed out that NNPCL has achieved a feat it had not been able to accomplish for the past 22 years, fighting crude oil theft, within few weeks of taking action to stop the illegal business.