BY ONYEKACHUKWU IBEZIM – The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL) is hopeful of better days ahead for the country’s oil revenue accruals as its recently contracted private security firm, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd (TSSNL), continues to record successes in exposing oil thieves and their illicit activities in the Niger Delta region.
Against this backdrop, the NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mele Kyari, said the company would not relent in its efforts to maintain robust partnerships with host communities and other stakeholders to secure the nation’s oil and gas facilities.
Kyari gave the assurance as the TSSNL, a company owned by High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, discovered another alleged illegal crude oil pipeline attached to Trans Forcados Export Trunkline to divert stolen crude from a 400,000 barrel per day Forcados pipeline to the high seas for illicit export.
According to TSSNL’s Managing Director, Chief Keston Pondi, the discovery was made about a week ago by the company’s operatives through an exclusive Intel and it comes a few days after an illegal four-kilometer crude oil pipeline belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) was also exposed.
Chief Pondi indicated that the discovered illegal pipeline was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in Burutu Local Government Area and curiously, the plugged point is directly located behind a military security post and less than a kilometer from the Forcados Export Terminal in Ogulagha community.
The discovery further showed that the illegal pipeline, from the point of connection, was linked to another abandoned pipeline riser located within the vicinity and owned by AGIP Petroleum Company Ltd.
Conveniently, the oil thieves have been ferrying condensed crude oil to the sea for loading into thieving ships at midnight for onward movement abroad through the abandoned AGIP facility from the Ogulagha-based Forcados Terminal which has a nameplate capacity to export 400,000 barrels per day.
It was further learned that some International Oil Companies (IOCs) and Nigerian independents operating in the Niger Delta also pump crude oil to the Forcados Oil Terminal for exports. The illegal pipeline receives crude oil from the Forcados Oil Pipeline System, the second largest pipeline network in the oil-producing region, after the Bonny Oil Pipeline System in the eastern Niger Delta.
Addressing the media on the latest discovery, a marine intelligence consultant for TSSNL, Captain Waredi Enisuoh, said the crude oil stealing from the trunkline had been on for quite a while by some very smart boys.
Captain Enisuoh told journalists; “We have been monitoring all these activities for quite a while now and we are waiting for the day our country will move forward. What had happened was that the perpetrators of this particularly organized crime had tapped into Shell 48 inch export line.
“The crude has been cleaned up and is ready to go. It is quite expensive. So, they tapped into it. The place was initially filled with water but technologically, they were able to connect their own pipes underwater.
“We traced the lines with bare feet to the point where it was tapped. We had to create two dams on either side of the pipe so that the water contained in the dam can be pumped out. We pumped the water out for days before the illegality was exposed.
“That riser behind me is operated by another Joint Venture Company called AGIP. This oil field actually belonged to AGIP and the pipe belongs to a filling station. So, instead of piping crude to the filing station, the smartest boys in the room decided to export crude through that particular jacket you’re seeing over there.
“They piped the lines into that place by cutting the AGIP’s one, connecting theirs, which goes through this particular riser. At night, they will bring a ship close to that particular platform reconnect their flange to fit into the ship and off they go. They are smart but they are not smarter than the NNPCL, Nigerians, and TSSNL operatives.
Furthermore, the TSSNL Consultant said; “We discovered this about a week ago. As you can see, we had to employ a whole lot of machinery to clear the area. We knew about it and started working on it when we had the support from NNPCL to go in. We are not going to predict what will happen next so that people don’t get smarter than us.
“So, we have to keep what we know for now and plead with those who take their time to steal from Nigerians to please stop. We’ve suffered enough and I think it’s high time we all came together and do something differently.”
Unable to give the accurate volume of crude oil being siphoned for export illegally, Captain Enisuoh however noted that the distance from the illegal connection point to the main pipeline is about one kilometer and to the jacket is about four kilometers.
Offering further insight into how crude was being stolen without the knowledge of the owners, the Consultant explained that; “What they (Oil thieves) do is that each time the pumping is going on, they open their own valve, and then the crude is stored on this line, then they close it off. So that when their ships are sucking, you won’t feel the effect of the pressure on the other side. It’s quite a smart design.
“We can’t tell how long it has been but it has been here for a while and with the intelligence, we’ve been getting about ships coming to that particular area which led to this finding, has been going on for a while, more than a year.
“You will have to do a whole lot of calculation based on the inches of the pipe and then calculate it by five kilometers and multiply that by the cubic meter you get per kilometer and you will get the volume.”
Captain Enisuoh said waiting to apprehend the oil thieves in the act would have been difficult given the resources needed to do so and given the fact that TSSNL is not a security outfit nor is it out to arrest but only to discourage the act.
Hear him; “It would have taken more resources to wait to apprehend them in the act. Why I said more resources is because, we would have had to go through a series of procedures because as you know, Tantitan Security Services is not a military outfit.
“It’s only an intelligence gathering outfit that shares information with our gallant forces which are the JTF and Operation Delta Safe via the NNPC as well. We cannot continue to bleed and wait. Our objective is not really to nail anybody, it is just to ensure that people should stop. Enough is Enough.”
Reacting to the latest development, the Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, said the company would continue to collaborate with host communities and other stakeholders to ensure that all oil and gas facilities are secured.
Kyari said; “NNPC Ltd has been on its toes in trying to bring stability to the host communities and the host communities have been very helpful in trying to ensure that we secure all oil and gas facilities, especially the one we saw which has to do with the crude oil evacuation lines.”
Represented by the General Manager, Gas Development Division, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr Buduwara Bitrus Zakariya, the NNPCL boss said; “Today is just any other day, but we just feel that the media should come and help us to show all the efforts NNPCL and all the stakeholders have been doing. They’ve been doing a great job.
“All that we are doing is to ensure and also assure Nigerians that we are doing something to curb this menace of crude oil theft. We know the direct impact it has on the revenue and on the people in the host communities and the environment.
“Taking the risk on behalf of Nigerians to see what is happening here shows the collaboration of everybody. No one can build alone; we should all do it together to achieve the desired objectives.”
In its resolve to find lasting solutions to crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta region, the NNPCL recently awarded a pipeline surveillance contract in Delta and Bayelsa states to Tompolo, whose involvement has so far been yielding good results.
