The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Mr. Bashir Ojulari, has said that crude oil theft across Africa is driven by specialised international and continental gangs exploiting security lapses.
Ojulari told the Africa Chiefs of Defence Staff Conference in Abuja on Monday that oil theft is not a localised crime, but a sophisticated operation requiring cross-border collaboration to tackle effectively.
“Crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence; rather, these operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture to conduct illegal activities,” he said.
He declared that crude theft and pipeline vandalism, especially within the oil-rich Niger Delta area of Nigeria, have become old occurrences because of the efforts of security agencies.
“Security forms a key pillar of the energy business and therefore plays a very important and strategic role in achieving national, regional and continental energy security goals,” he declared.
As the head of the largest national oil company on the continent, Ojulari said: “We have seen the benefit of the collaboration within the energy space, with significant improvement in our operating environment.”
The report by Punch newspaper quoted the NNPCL boss as saying that recent operations by the Nigerian Army’s 6 Division have led to the confiscation of over 32,000 litres of stolen petroleum products and the arrest of 69 suspects. Also, the Federal Government and international oil companies have been taking several steps to combat oil theft across the country.
According to Ojulari, the Nigerian government is utilising advanced surveillance technologies, including drones and satellite imagery, to monitor oil pipelines and facilities, while the Nigerian military and law enforcement agencies have launched significant campaigns against illegal oil operations, dismantling numerous bunkering sites and arresting suspects.
He added that the Nigerian government is also partnering with international bodies to track and prevent the illegal sale of stolen oil on the global market.
GIK/APA