America has a policy of not negotiating with terrorists because mayhem is no basis for negotiations. I flashed back to this policy on hearing of the recent threats against international energy conglomerate Aiteo by faceless militants over the security of its oil installations in the Niger Delta.
Last week, a group of Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) surveillance contractors reportedly stormed Aiteo’s offices in Port Harcourt and held employees hostage. They claimed the company had engaged the services of new surveillance contractors to replace them, demanding that the process should be discontinued immediately without which they would resort to “war in the Niger Delta.”
The Black Egbesu Confraternity, a militant group, cashed in on the situation. It went on the social media threatening to unleash mayhem on Aiteo’s Nembe Trunk Lines if the company fail to renew the agitators’ contracts.
NCTL is a 97km pipeline for produced fluids that Aiteo acquired from Shell alongside OML 29, and is used by a number of oil producers for fluid injection. Over the years, the trunk line which is a national asset has been subjected to persistent vandalism and bunkering, such that Shell was forced to shut it down in 2014 on realising that 140,000 barrels of crude oil valued at $16 million was stolen by vandals on a daily basis.
Aiteo subsequently acquired the trunk line from Shell alongside the contractors charged with keeping it safe and secure.
But that simple task has been a pipe dream of sorts. Last year, Aiteo witnessed a series of illegal bunkering activities at the same pipeline, such that it was forced to shut down its facilities for 18 days and consequently lost 150,000 barrels per day valued at $135 million. To save face, the surveillance contractors reportedly blamed one another for the illegal activity. As expected of any proactive company, Aiteo referred the suspects to the Department of State Services (DSS) in Rivers State for investigation. If the said contractors are aggrieved, they are free to seek legal redress. But they clearly have no place wearing the toga of militancy to threaten the safety of Aiteo installations and employees.
The activities of vandals are pernicious and do not only affect Aiteo but Nigeria as well. Last year, the country lost a whopping N2.1 trillion to oil pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta. Pipeline bombings are said to currently cost Nigeria about 1.3 billion barrels of crude oil daily, not to mention the resultant shutdowns and shut-ins. Late last year, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed that in the space of a few months, 1,600 cases of pipeline vandalism had been recorded. He advised that Nigeria ramp up daily production by 1.1 million barrels per day to close the gap. The story is the same for gas, which records a shut-in of 850 million standard cubic feet daily and power outage exposure of 2,700 megawatts (MW) to 3,000 megawatts due to vandalism. This is certainly a huge setback for a country whose mainstay is crude oil accounting for about 70 per cent of revenue and 90 per cent of foreign exchange earnings.
Aiteo has not breached protocol by taking proactive steps to secure its facilities in the face of this wanton onslaught. If a bunch of faceless militants like the Black Egbesu Confraternity find this illegal, maybe they should redefine the meaning of the word since the violence they unleash is the very definition of the term. One is left wondering if they expect Aiteo to fold it arms and watch while the country loses billions of Naira whenever it shuts down its facilities for repairs. I may be wrong, but there is something fundamentally flawed with the argument that Aiteo is illegal if the militants masquerading as contractors signed a contract with the company to secure its oil pipelines in the first place.
The Benedict Peters-led Aiteo is one of Africa’s major players in the exploration and distribution of energy with offices in Lagos, the United Kingdom and Geneva. Selected as the most successful bidder for 45 per cent of OML 29 and NCTL, it has recorded the most successful acquisition in the history of Nigeria. I find it hard to believe that a company with such a pedigree would deliberately stoke the embers of violence and carnage in the troubled Niger Delta region.
Last time I checked, a contract is only valid if both parties are in mutual agreement. If in this case Aiteo has decided it does not want to proceed for a justifiable reason, I wonder why the militants must resort to bombing oil installations in an already troubled region. If peace and equity are the intent of the Black Egbesu Confraternity as claimed, the group would not threaten to unleash mayhem which would certainly cost lives.
Our democracy is 18 years old, enough time for aggrieved individuals and groups to realise everyone is free to voice their discontent. But threatening to foment trouble just to pass a message across is beyond the pale. The militants would be better placed to embrace dialogue with Aiteo and prove their mettle by securing its facilities rather than agitate for a contract with violence.
The Federal Government, state security services and the general public should take these threats to the law-abiding Aiteo personnel and national infrastructure seriously. All hands must be on deck to checkmate a few undesirable elements driven by excessive greed from toeing the path of criminality and destruction.
Atanda is a public affairs analyst based in Rivers
