$86 Million of National Oil Revenue Stolen at Pipelines
By Ebere Inyama
Exchange of gunfire between two rival groups of pipeline vandals triggered an explosion in a forest in Obitti, Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State on Tuesday, 31st January, 2024, TruthNigeria has learned.
When contacted, the public relations officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), CSP Chimeziri Lowel, confirmed the incident to TruthNigeria. S “There was a pipeline explosion at Obiti, but I have not been briefed officially about it. I will get the details and give you feedback,” the officer said.
Henry Okoye, the Police Public Relations Officer, requested of TruthNigeria a text message to which he will reply but as at the time of filing this report, Okoye’s reply was not received.
According to findings by an oil theft situation assessment delegation deployed in the Niger Delta by President Bola Tinubu in August 2023, Nigeria loses an average of 7.2 million dollars monthly, to clandestine refineries and oil theft.
A resident of Obitti community who identified himself as Uzoma, told TruthNigeria that the explosion was reported on Tuesday, Jan. 31, when a group of pipeline vandals drove a tanker into the Obitti Rubber Estate with the intention to tap oil from the pipeline at Ndorama.
“The vandals came in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday,” Uzoma said. “They dug deep into the ground, found the pipeline, cut it open and plugged a hose to it. The other end of the hose was put into the tanker from the top of the tank, thereby making it easy for the oil to flow freely from the pipeline to the tanker. When they were leaving from the scene, a rival group of vandals confronted them and attempted to extort money from them. But the vandals refused to settle with the rival group, and this led to a gun fight between them. During the exchange of gunfire, the tanker was hit by bullets, and it caught fire leading to an explosion which killed 8 people” Uzoma said.
CSP Chimeziri Lowel, the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC, said to TruthNigeria that the Imo state command has arrested some pipeline vandals in the past.
“The Imo state command of NSCDC has arrested over 48 suspects in the last 2 years,” Lowell said. “Most of the suspects have been convicted by the courts and sent to jail while the rest are still undergoing prosecution. These vandals use sophisticated equipment, including drilling machines to cut open the pipelines after which they use pumping machines to collect the crude oil. The vandals transport the crude oil to their hideouts where they refine it into a variety of products, including gas, petrol, kerosene and diesel which they sell to the retailers and consumers, ”Lowel said.
Hundreds of oil thefts happen every week
In the past three weeks, 15 illegal pipeline connections and 83 illegal refineries have been uncovered in Niger Delta states, namely, Abia, Imo, Bayelsa and Rivers States, while a total of 211 incidents of oil theft and vandalism were reported in the area between January 6 and 12, 2024.
in January 2022, the NSCDC Command in Abia State destroyed 10 illegal modular refineries operating in Okohia and Owaza oil-bearing communities of the state. Also destroyed by NSCDC agents were the pipes supplying product from the Shell Petroleum pipelines to the 10 cooking pots used for the refining of crude oil inside the forest.
These attacks on the nation’s oil industry took place despite the award of a multi-billion naira pipelines surveillance deal to Tantita Security Services led by former militant leader Government Ekpemepulo AKA “Tompolo” in August 2022, and despite a three-day sensitization exercise organized in some Niger Delta states in December, 2023 by Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Ltd (PINL). The sensitization exercise was conducted in conjunction with Inter Atlas, the project management office for the Operation plug, and government security agencies composed of the Army, Navy and Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps. During the exercise, more than 30 trucks loaded with security operatives moved round the target communities with public address systems, stopping intermittently at strategic points to address community people on the security- and environmental implications of pipeline vandalism and oil theft. Various sizes of handbills with campaign messages against oil theft also were distributed in strategic community markets.
Some of the communities visited include Owaza, Odogwa, Egbema and others spanning the three states of Abia, Imo and Rivers.
Explosions on oil pipelines due caused by pipeline tapping by oil thieves have been a regular hazard for decades in Niger Delta states of which Imo is one. The biggest tragedy was recorded on October 18, 1998 when 1,082 people died and hundreds injured at Jesse, in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State, after pipeline vandals intentionally ruptured the pipeline and accidentally ignited the blaze.
On March 20, 2000, 50 persons were burned to death when a pipeline blew up near Isioma, Abia State, after suspected oil thieves ruptured the pipeline to intercept the flow of petrol from Port Harcourt to Aba.
Four months after, precisely on July 11, 2000, 300 people died in Warri, Delta State, in a fire caused by a pipeline explosion as a result of pipeline vandalism., More than 200 persons were burned to death on October 12, 2018 while scooping fuel from a vandalized pipeline belonging to Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, in Umuimo and Umuaduru communities in Osisioma Ngwa LGA of Abia State.
Last month, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd., Malam Mele Kyari, told the Senate Committee on Appropriations that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has in the last two years lost more than 200,000 barrels of crude oil valued at $13 million daily to theft and vandalism.
Nigeria has the largest population of impoverished citizens in Africa, with as many as 80 million people surviving on less than $3 a day.
Ebere Inyama is a journalist covering Southeastern Nigeria for TruthNigeria.
