You recall the Arabian folk story about ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,’ do you? The pervasiveness and irrepressibility of those characters in the elementary school literature text bearing the story were traits that made them legendary and almost superhuman. Oil thieves relentlessly pillaging Nigeria’s prime resource have assumed the notoriety and legend status of that Arabian tale.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) made known lately that the country loses 470,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to vandalism and oil theft at the terminals, amounting to $700million every month. Group General Manager, Crude Oil Marketing Department, Rose Eshiett, was reported saying security challenges being experienced in the oil sector hindered output by the country. Speaking during a tour of NNPCL facilities last weekend, she said oil theft and pipeline vandalism had compelled shutdown of the Bonny export terminal where the challenge seems most pronounced. She added that Forcados was not completely secure but NNPCL was working hard to fix the challenge.
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According to the official, negative impacts of the activities of vandals include low crude oil production, interrupted gas supply, countrywide interruption of petroleum products distribution, refinery downtimes and mounting instability of the oil and gas market. She added: “Nigeria suffers for it, the revenues are impacted. So we can only appeal to them to rein in themselves. The oil theft situation is regrettable. It’s not going on across the whole of the Niger Delta, there are trunk lines that are more impacted. I think the Bonny trunk line ranks highest. Our major challenge as a country is our capability to respond, and that is as a result of several factors, the terrain as well as some incapacity that we have.”
The oil giant indicated it wasn’t folding its hands. Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Bala Wunti, assured that technologically-driven all-solutions were being evolved to tame the menace. Speaking at a demo organised for journalists in Abuja, he said though the digital solution had a semblance of Saudi Arabia’s security infrastructure, the Nigerian model combined technology with efforts of the national security agencies and oil communities. “This is beyond the digital control system, it is also a security system,” he was reported saying inter alia.
Pipeline vandals and oil thieves are flesh and blood, not spirits. Security operatives along with NNPCL must do whatever it takes to tackle them down, unless the political will is lacking. This is more so that the axis where their ill-operations are most intense is known. It will be sheer pipe dream to expect they would rein themselves in as NNPCL urges. They have to be stopped.