The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC) has said that an oil theft point that operated undetected for nine years ran from the Trans Escravos pipeline in Delta state, and not the Forcados export terminal as previously stated.
This is coming after NNPC’s chief executive officer (CEO), Mele Kyari, had on Saturday, October 8, posted pictures of his visit to the theft point site alongside General Lucky Irabor, Nigeria’s chief of defence staff, on his Twitter page.
The pictures showed that the men inspected the pipelines that appeared to have been buried underground.
Kyari also stated that they inspected the Afremo platform, which was potentially the exit point for the diverted crude, without giving details.
However, an official of NNPC, while speaking on Sunday, October 9, said that the theft point ran from the Trans Escravos pipeline, which can feed the Forcados export terminal.
He added that the discovery of the theft line showed that Nigeria’s coordinated intervention was paying off.
The NNPC official’s comments concur with those from the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), which operates the Forcados terminal.
SPDC, in a statement released last week, stated that the theft pipeline was approximately 30 kilometres away from the Forcados terminal, and not on the path of its pipelines.
Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), had on Tuesday, October 4, said that it uncovered an illegal 4-kilometre (km) pipeline from Forcados terminal, Delta state, to the sea, and a loading port that had operated undetected in the last nine years.
Mele Kyari disclosed this when he appeared before the senate joint committees on petroleum (upstream and downstream), and gas.
He said that the pipeline was found during a clampdown on theft in the past six weeks.
“Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented,” Kyari said.
“The Brass, Forcados, and the Bonny terminals, are all practically doing zero production today.
“As a result of oil theft, Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels per day, which is not healthy for the nation’s economy, and in particular, the legal operators in the field, which had led to a close down of some of their operational facilities,” he added.
According to Kyari, the level of oil theft at hand, poses a blend of both social and security problems.
“It is not only a security problem but social as locals in most areas where the illegal refiners operate, unknowingly serve as their employees by mistaking them for operatives of licensed companies for oil exploration and production in the area,” Kyari said.
“It is not abnormal to involve non-state actors for protection of oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure as done in Cambodia and Mexico which produced desired results.”
SOURCE: thestreetjournal.org