By Ola ‘Kiya, Reporting
THE Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) says it has uncovered an illegal 4-kilometre pipeline from Forcados terminal to the sea, and a loading port that had been operating undetected in the last nine years.
Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC Limited, made the disclosure on Tuesday when he appeared before the Senate’s joint committees on petroleum (upstream and downstream), and gas.
He said the pipeline was uncovered during a clampdown on crude oil theft in the past six weeks.
He 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.
“The Brass, Forcados, and the Bonny terminals, are all practically doing zero production today; the combined effect is that you have lost 600,000 barrels per day when you do a reality test.
“As a result of oil theft, Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels per day, which is not healthy for the nation’s economy, and in particular, the legal operators in the field, which had led to a close down of some of their operational facilities.
“But in rising to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPCL has in recent times in collaboration with relevant security agencies, clamped down on the economic saboteurs.
“In the course of the clamp down within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1, 561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized and 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 noted.
Kyari said in efforts to address the menace, NNPCL carried out an aerial surveillance of the affected areas and beheld economic saboteurs carrying out their activities unchallenged.
He said the current magnitude of oil theft posed a blend of both social and security challenges.
“It is not only security but social as locals in most areas where the illegal refiners operate, unknowingly serve as their employees by mistaking them for operatives of licensed companies for oil exploration and production in the area.
“It is not abnormal to involve non-state actors for protection of oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure as done in Cambodia and Mexico which produced desired results,” he noted while justifying the surveillance contract awarded the likes of Tompolo and others.
Meanwhile, members of the committees, after over four hours of interactive session,
proposed that capital punishment be put in place for oil thieves, which will be presented at plenary for consideration.
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