•Onslaught rattles the underworld in Niger Delta
The fight against crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region is yielding fruits just as it is rattling the underworld, especially in Bayelsa and Delta states, considered the strongholds of illegal oil refinery camps, it has continued to expose the deep level of crude oil theft in the country.
Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) report indicated an appreciable increase in oil production for early October in contrast to what obtained in August and September.
The report stated that oil production averaged 1,014,485 barrels per day in October representing 8.18 per cent increase compared to September’s production of 937,766 million barrels a day.
Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, insists: “Highly placed people are involved in crude oil theft. As a Bayelsan, you know very well that a lot of people are involved in these things.
“Some are from our communities and we know them. Investigation has commenced. These things go deep down, because some highly placed and wealthy people must be involved. If you see the extent of the problem then you want to dig deep to find out those people who are all involved. So it is not something you can conclude in a day. But investigation is on going.
“If you go around, you will see what is happening to our environment. We see what is happening to our waters, the fish are not there.
“Before, we used to blame Shell. But we cannot even blame Shell because most of the devastation of our environment is caused by our people.
“We must join hands together with the Federal Government and the security agencies. We must fish out all these elements into oil stealing, which damages our environment and impoverished our people.”
Oil thieves have resorted to desperate means including issuing death threats and carrying out attacks to frustrate the war against oil theft. Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, alleged recently that his life was being threatened over the successes being recorded in the fight against oil theft.
Kyari said the discovery of 295 connections to the NNPC pipeline and destruction of illegal oil refineries in the last few months was responsible for the death threats: “The scale (oil theft) is enormous. We have seen pipelines taken from our main trunk lines to abandoned platforms. We have thousands of illegal refineries that we have taken down in the past few months.
“We have seen over 295 illegal connections to our pipelines. Many of them have been there for years. We were left with no choice but to involve private security contractors and it worked. They are complementing our security agencies and they have done great work.
“I have received several death threats to myself. This is the cost of change. When people walk away from things they are used to, to something new. Something that will take away value and benefit from them, they will react. That reaction is beneficial to us, for all of us that will work together to make sure that this works.”
To frustrate the fight against oil theft, some suspected youths in Ekeremor Local Government, Bayelsa State, were alleged to have opened fire on a boat conveying operatives of Tantita Security Services and officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The incident, which occurred on October 28 2022, was seen as the latest action from crude oil thieves to fight back. During the gun-duel, three of the suspected oil thieves were gunned down.
The NSCDC confirmed the attack. Its Spokesman in the state, Mr. Solomon Diri- Ogbere, said: “The command wishes to state unequivocally that personnel of the NSCDC alongside the Tantita Security Services were on pipeline surveillance within the area when they were ambushed and attacked by some armed youths who tried to prevent them from carrying out their lawful duty of protection of pipeline and surveillance.
“NSCDC officers in Bayelsa are professionally trained and briefed on the operational terms of the pipeline surveillance, which is one of the core mandates of the NSCDC.
“Our personnel are well trained and have undergone series of training and are well abreast of their rules of engagement in weapon handling and would never use their weapon at any slight provocation. The Commandant-General, NSCDC, has it as a policy that accidental discharge is not acceptable in the Corps.
“NSCDC will continue to carry out its core mandate of protecting critical national infrastructure and make sure those sabotaging the nation’s economy through illegal bunkering and pipeline vandalism are chased out of business within Bayelsa and others are in the Niger Delta region.”
SOURCE: The Sun News