How Kidnapping, Banditry threaten oil search in the North

-By Fred Ojeigbe

The nefarious activities of armed bandits and kidnappers across some states in the North may threaten the ongoing search for crude oil in the North, analysis by Valuechain, shows.

Armed banditry and kidnapping have continued despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive last month to the military, police and other security agencies to put an immediate end to it as well as other criminal acts ravaging the north.

According to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu during the quarterly Northern Traditional Rulers’ Council meeting held in Kaduna State April 30, 2019, a total of 1,071 people were killed in crime-related cases across the country in the first quarter of 2019.

The killings, he said, were most prevalent in the north where 767 people were killed, the northwest region topping the list with 436. While the north central recorded 250 deaths, the south-south recorded 130.

The north western states has been terribly-hit with a wave of kidnappings and killings by bandits, making it the face of insecurity in the country over the past few months. Zamfara and Katsina states in particular have witnessed an upsurge in kidnapping and banditry in recent time.

Only last month a group of kidnappers in a recreational resort called Kajuru Castle in Kaduna state, about 120km from the country’s seat of power, Abuja killed a British woman and a Nigerian man, and abducted three others.

Unfortunately, the rise in the rate of banditry and kidnapping in the North is coming at a time Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is prospecting for oil in the region.

President Buhari had in 2016 directed the NNPC to explore for oil in the inland basins of the North.

NNPC then moved in to the Chad, Bida and Sokoto basins as well as the Benue Trough where the potential for commercial oil and gas have long been established for over 25 years.

During such oil explorations it is important that humans as well as vehicles and the pipes that transport these oil/gas are safe from multi-faceted threats.

But the exploration at the Chad Basin, situated in parts of Borno State, was suspended in July 2017, following attacks on oil workers and military personnel by the Boko Haram insurgents. Exploration at the Chad Basin had remained suspended since then over concerns of insecurity at the parts where seismic data gathering activities were going on at the basin.

NNPC then shifted focus on oil exploratory activities to the Benue Trough and Sokoto Basin after Boko Haram attack forced the suspension of exploration in the Chad Basin.

At the Benue Trough, President Buhari had earlier in the year officially flagged-off drilling activities in the Kolmani River-II Oil Well, a site near Barambu village in Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

Drilling commenced following the identification of some prospects at Bauchi and Gombe states which together form the Gongola Basin in the northern part of Benue Trough after series of seismic data acquisition activities had commenced in 2016.

The drilling activity which is known in the oil industry as Spud-in came to reality following a directive in 2016 by President Buhari to the NNPC to resume exploration activities in the North especially the Chad Basin and the Kolmani River in the Benue Trough.

At the Benue Trough, NNPC said it was also planning massive 2D seismic data acquisition in other parts of the Benue Trough traversing Adamawa, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue and Taraba state.

However, there are growing concerns about the impact of activities of armed bandits and kidnappers on these projects.

In early April, four staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Bauchi State were reportedly kidnapped by armed men at Jama’are Local Government. A month earlier, suspected bandits reportedly killed an army commander on the Magaman Gumau road in Bauchi. Pockets of related crimes have continued which have culminated in the launch by the police of a special operation code-named “Operation Puff Adder” to tackle security challenges such as kidnapping, armed robbery, and banditry. The operation coincided with the arrest by the Bauchi State Police Command of 39 suspected criminals across the state.

In Nasarawa state where some of NNPC oil search operations will take place, attacks among communities have resulted to killings and abductions. Such crimes including cattle rustling have also been widely reported across Plateau, Benue and Taraba states where NNPC is gearing up to commence oil exploration. Certainly, there is no way oil exploration activities can take place in such an unsafe situation.

At the other basins in the North where exploration activities have commenced, concerns over the sustainability of the search for oil, are mounting over the spate of insecurity in the region.

At the Sokoto Basin, preliminary work has started as field geological work is expected to be concluded soon.

The second phase, which is surface geochemistry, ground gravity and magnetics data gathering will soon commence in Bida and Sokoto.

NNPC, it was learnt, has already procured aeromagnetic data on the Sokoto basin from the Nigerian Geophysical Survey as well as awarded contract for the mapping and procurement of apt samples to further the understanding of the area.

NNPC, Valuechain gathered, has contracted its subsidiary, Integrated Data Services Limited (IDSL) to carry out various geochemistry investigations to boost the gathering and integration of all relevant data ahead of the planned procurement of seismic 2D data position.

However, news reports in February indicated that banditry in Sokoto State, so far, has claimed an estimated total of 81 lives since July 9 last year.

Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in February confirmed the death of 16 people in a fresh bandit attack at Dalijan, Rakkoni and Kalhu communities in the Rabah Local Government Area of the state. Only recently, an 82-year-old district head in Gudu Local Government Area of the State, was killed by armed bandits who also set ablaze the divisional police headquarters in the area, including patrol cars and some personal vehicles. Pockets of similar crimes occur regularly that put socio-economic activities in the area in jeopardy.

The problems of incessant militant attacks and sabotage, oil theft, kidnapping and armed robbery in the Niger Delta from where much of Nigeria’s oil is extracted, were part of the reasons the federal government turned attention towards the North. But growing insecurity in the region looks set to drag the government down.

The volatile security environment in the country particularly in the North, has grave implications for the NNPC and the search for oil in region as security cost could affect the ongoing search.
A report by the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), showed that oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria spend five times more on security than their global peers, with over $500 million spent in 2016 on security services such as escort vessels, convoys and guards.

According to the report, operating companies rely on costly transportation options for personnel and goods, such as helicopter transport and aviation as a result of the insecurity.

The report added that these security challenges result in a cost premium for the oil and gas sector, severely affecting both operational and project costs.