A theft of about 180,000 barrels of crude oil occurs daily from the extensive crude pipeline network that dots the Niger-Delta, and via no more than 10 pathways, through which the thieves escape into international waters.
Curiously, there has not been a singe successful prosecution of perpetrators since the theft began.
BusinessDay investigation showed that at the beginning, the oil thieves would simply cut into oil pipelines with crude tools and then begin to scoop oil from the damaged pipe before the line was shut down because of reduced pressure, to avert spillage into the environment.
Senior oil company executives in the Niger Delta say the thieves and their wealthy patrons have upgraded their techniques by migrating from one-inch hoses to eight-inch hoses and acquiring 50,000 barrel vessels. They have even gone as far as erecting an oil tank farm in Akwete ,as the illegal trade assumes a sophisticated industrial scale.
In a recent case, several corpses including those of foreigners were discovered on board a burning vessel being used by the crude oil thieves. No one knows how the vessel caught fire.
One of the senior oil executives said, “today we are fighting a war, not against small boys in the creeks, but against principalities and powers who live in mansions around the world. The crude oil theft and the resultant damage to the environment are of a scale never before seen.”
In a recent case, thieves cut into the crude oil pipeline of a major oil producer, attached several four-inch hoses running more than a kilometer, to hook up with their vessel, which had been positioned well away from the pipeline network.
Although the initial loss of pressure along the pipeline network forced the oil company to shut down the line so they could trace the point of leakage, they found no such leakage after several days of surveillance.
The oil company then resumed pumping oil through the pipeline and unknown to officials of the company, part of the crude oil flowing, was being siphoned into the vessel the thieves had positioned and connected to the pipeline by the four hoses.
Suspicious oil executives noticed reduced pressure on their pipeline, and it was not until after more intensive surveillance by technicians, that four hoses were found buried in the swamp by the oil thieves, to take oil from the company pipeline into the illegal bunkering vessel.
The trade costs the nation about $5 billion annually in stolen crude, results in economic loss to the communities, causes devastation to the environment, and is also leading to a re-militarisation of the Niger Delta.
Replaced at a staggering cost of $1.1 billion in 2010, the 97 kilometre long Nembe Creek Trunk Line or NCTL, which is owned by Shell and runs along the Abonema creek, appears to be one of the most susceptible to attacks by the thieves.
At one point this year, 53 different bunkering points were discovered along the NCTL alone.
Each year, Shell spends about $150 million to repair the company’s pipeline network, and another $20 million on spill containment to clean up the environment after each attack.
Shell maintains about 45 different surveillance contracts with communities for the NCTL, which is Nigeria’s main crude delivery facility, used by Shell and third party producers.
The army maintains a taskforce in the area, led by Lt. Col. W. B. Idris, but the team is poorly equipped, and our reporters learnt that the Rivers state government is acquiring two armoured helicopters fitted with surveillance cameras to join in the fight against the thieves and other criminals operating in the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment