By Nnaji Jekwu Onovo
Draft agreement at COP28 omitted the “phase out” of fossil fuels including coal, oil and gas. So, use and applications of fossil fuels continue. However, Nigerians are not sure if our oil will survive the onslaught of oil thieves. Nigerian crude oil is being stolen on an industrial scale. Some of this stolen oil – it is not entirely clear how much – is exported. Proceeds are then laundered through world financial centres and used to buy assets in Nigeria and abroad. In Nigeria, politicians, government security forces, militants, oil industry personnel, oil traders and community members benefit to varying degrees, along with organized criminal networks.
In geographical terms, what is today referred to as the Niger Delta is one of the world’s largest wetlands. Occupying a large expanse of area about 70,000 square kilometres, it stretches across nine different states in the coastal South of Nigeria, which borders the Gulf of Guinea, the lobe-shaped “armpit” along the west coast of Africa extending across Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon, and Angola. Topographically, the Niger Delta is mostly characterised by swamps, mangroves, marine water, creeks, rivers, canals, estuaries, patches of thick forests, and so on. Thus the Delta terrain, as Ed Kashi observes, is “tricky with remote areas reachable only by small boats and along every road and waterway danger lurks for the intruder”. This peculiar spatial character of the region thus makes it not only difficult to traverse but also one of the most difficult places on earth to engage in military battle or even to mount effective state surveillance. So, government security forces especially Navy find it difficult to penetrate the area. And we have to adopt abnormal means by engaging militants as pipeline securities.
The GMD NNPCL, Mele Kyari addressing the Senate Committee on appropriations said: “it is abnormal to engage non-state actors to protect critical assets like oil pipelines. We have however responded abnormally and are getting results, because unlike as it was in July 2022 when less than 1.2 million barrels of oil were produced by day , it has been 1.5 million barrels per day within the last two to three months “.
In oddities Nigeria ranks high, so the exception becomes the norm. The militants who supported and promoted pipeline vandalism and oil theft are being hired to protect oil installations. This arrangement is paradoxical and cause for concern. This is akin to keeping goats under the care of lions.
The worries are supported by statements of some stakeholders from the oil bearing states, such as the Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, who criticised the Federal Government for awarding the contract for the protection of crude oil pipelines to “one man”. Fubara spoke when a Federal Government delegation on the security of oil and gas assets led by the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, visited him. The governor said, “How can someone from Kalabari be controlling the pipeline in Ogoni? There is no way it will work.”
Prominent Niger Delta leader and former militant turned pipeline security provider, Asari Dokubo, alleged that 99 per cent of oil theft incidents recorded in the oil-rich region was traceable to the Nigerian Army and Navy. But the Nigerian military denied the allegation, and dared Dokubo to provide evidence to substantiate his claim,
The Navy alleged, after intercepting a 77-meter-long motor tanker filled with crude oil, that Tantita Security Services Limited (belonging to ex-militant, Tompolo) may have been involved in the theft. The management of Tantita denied the allegation describing it as bizarre and mischievous.
Sure! That is the bizarre world of Nigeria oil security— allegations and counter-allegations.
One of the major fallouts from the crisis in the Niger Delta was the dramatic rise in illegal oil bunkering or oil theft. Bunkering itself, as the oil industry’s related activity, involves the transfer or siphoning of fuel from highly protected storage facilities into ship bunkers for onward transportation abroad. In Nigeria, oil bunkering describes the subterranean and unlawful extraction of crude oil products from Oil Company and NNPC pipelines and storage facilities into large containers for onward transportation via speed boats and badges into the high seas. These products are then sold to invisible but powerful international cartels run mostly by foreigners.
The involvement of youth groups in oil theft were at first limited to providing security for oil thieves, an activity from which they were able to enrich themselves and acquire weapons, but after a while they were able to engage in oil theft autonomously and this led to escalation of the illegal activity in the region.
There are no easy fixes for Nigeria’s crude oil theft problem. But there are options to help reduce the problem, which could, if managed well, have positive effects for tackling and reducing other forms of transnational organized crime.
Satellite images of deforestation have helped convict illegal loggers in Latin American and Southeast Asian countries. Nigeria could use satellite technology to track ships carrying stolen crude. The tools for this exist, and they could reveal tell-tale signs of theft.
Relatively cheap and unsophisticated surveillance equipment can be used to monitor attacks on oil pipelines and track the movements of suspicious cargo around the Gulf of Guinea. Remote sensors can be placed on pipelines, which are able to detect acts of vandalism. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are small surveillance aircraft remotely controlled, can also be used. For such a surveillance system to work, it must be placed in the hands of an organization that can be fully trusted. In addition, after the information is gathered, there needs to be an intervention squad to arrest and prosecute the vandals and bunkering agents that is free from the interference of those with vested interests in the illegal oil trade.
With regards to the alleged direct involvement of the military and elites in oil theft, if information on the people caught in the process is made public, this will probably be followed by a demand for justice by Nigerian citizens and international activists. This action can lead to conviction and sentencing of the culprits, which in effect will deter other elites from venturing into oil theft. Transparent criminal records will also dissuade the government from awarding security contracts to militants, as this practice pose a challenge of double jeopardy whereby criminals are not prosecuted and the conflict situation in the region can be exacerbated with the militants’ access to funds and weapons.
