Nigeria is a failing state when it comes to protecting what accounts for 90% of its export revenue. What is sadder than the country’s non-working refineries is the fact that it cannot protect its oil treasure due to crude oil theft.
At the head of a federal delegation visiting oil infrastructure sites in Abia and Rivers states, Nuhu Ribadu lamented that local and international oil thieves and vandals were costing the country $4 million in losses daily and preventing the realization of production targets. That amounts to over $1.4 billion yearly.
What has been visible in Nigeria’s oil sector is the sustained failed efforts of successive governments to tame oil theft. In 2022, the NNPC noted that with losses of 200,000 barrels of crude oil a day Nigeria loses about $4 billion in revenue every year. The group went on to launch a crude oil theft monitoring app. One year later, there is no appraisal of the difference the app has made.
Following reports that $29 million has been lost in 2023 due to crude oil theft, the Senate on Tuesday ordered a thorough investigation into the actions of security forces and militia groups using sophisticated methods to steal crude oil in the country. This followed a motion during plenary by Senator Ned Munir Nwoko (Delta North).
Nwoko pointed out that the statistics that were at hand demonstrated how oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism had plunged Nigeria into a catastrophic socio-economic catastrophe. The congressman claimed that some dishonest individuals in the security agencies banded together with dubious individuals in the oil industry to engage in illegal oil theft operations.
This, he claimed, hampered the joint efforts of the Nigerian military’s Joint Task Force and other various security institutions to tackle the threat.
Oil theft causes resource loss, insecurity, a decrease in oil revenue, inadequate financing of development projects, etc., which has an impact on Nigerian development initiatives. To stop the menace, President Bola Tinubu must launch a comprehensive revamp of the security and regulatory systems.
Tompolo-owned GWVSL received a 48 billion NGN pipeline surveillance contract for the Niger Delta region during the Buhari government. The Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force leader, Asari Dokubo, railed against the Federal Government’s agreement with Mr. Tompolo.
Tompolo being in charge of pipeline protection for all the Niger Delta’s ethnic groups, in his opinion, reeked of greed. He pledged to prevent Tompolo from overseeing the surveillance contract for the 83-kilometer pipeline that passes through his Kalabari neighborhood in Rivers State.
Timipre Sylva, the former minister of state for petroleum, was charged with purposefully handing over everything to Tompolo to retaliate against Dokubo and undermine the Niger Delta.
“You will take a pipeline contract in Delta State, your place, and then you come to Kalabari to take another one, saying you are an Ijaw man because you are the only one that knows how to eat.
“You are collecting over 4.5 billion NGN a month for doing nothing. And people are supporting you. You must leave the 82km pipeline for Kalabari (Dokubo’s hometown). You can’t take it. Take all other places but this one in Kalabari; you can’t take it,” he warned last year,” Dokubo said.
If the GWVSL has not been able to monitor the 82km pipeline for Kalabari, who has been doing that for the FG?
According to observers of the oil business, the federal government still has a lot to do to stop the increasing instances of theft and vandalism in the sector. It is hoped that the continuing evaluation of the oil and gas facilities will be carried out to a logical end and that all those charged with stealing oil will be forced to stand trial.
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