As Nigerians continue to express dismay over the recent discovery and revelations by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited of an illegal four-kilometer pipeline in the Niger Delta, stretching from the Forcados terminal to the sea, unanswered questions linger.
–By Yange Ikyaa
Constructed together with a loading port in a Delta State community, the four-kilometer theft-support pipeline is said to have functioned undetected by the Nigerian security network for the last nine years, resulting in massive crude oil diversion and theft running into billions, if not trillions of naira.
This sad news was broken on October 11 by the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari, when he appeared before the Senate Joint Committees On Petroleum and Gas Upstream and Downstream, prompting massive resentful reactions and widespread outcry from the Nigerian public. There is also a sense of disbelief and mistrust among Nigerians of the associated parties in the running of these assets in question, which are jointly owned by international oil companies (IOCs) in a joint venture arrangement with NNPC Limited on behalf of the government of the federation in general.
While certain quarters believe it is impossible for NNPC Limited and the various security agencies in Nigeria to be unaware of this colossal theft of government resources for such a long period of time, others are also wondering which of the many parties involved in this scandalous controversy should be taken for their words and believed by Nigerians.
This may not be unconnected with the fact that after Kyari had said that the four-kilometre illegal pipeline had linked the Forcados Terminal into the sea, another report credited to NNPC Limited later emerged and denounced the previous news, insisting that the pipeline in question has rather connected the Escravos Terminal, and not Forcados, to the sea.
In more extreme cases, many Nigerians have even criticized NNPC Limited by saying that the company, which is now privatized, is not in any way different from the previous NNPC, and that the transformation that the new company has claimed to have gone through in July 2022 was simply a change of its logo but nothing more.
Yet, many others have continued to accuse and criticize the nation’s conventional security agents and agencies for laxity or probable complicity. According to the NNPC Limited Boss, “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.”
Crude oil theft is said to have risen in Nigeria in recent years, with NNPC Limited estimating that the country loses up to 470,000 barrels of crude oil per month, amounting to $700 million in monetary terms. Other media reports claim that Nigeria lost $10 billion to crude oil theft in just seven months.
The Federal Government, in its recently drafted fiscal strategy paper (2023-2025), said that oil revenues underperformed in the country due to significant production shortfalls, such as shut-ins resulting from pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.
According to Kyari, “the Brass, Forcados and Bonny terminals were all practically doing zero production, and the combined effect is that you have lost 600,000 barrels per day when you do a reality test.
“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.”
NNPC Limited, he said, carried out aerial surveillance of the affected areas and discovered “the economic saboteurs carrying out their activities unchallenged and unperturbed,” and that 395 illegal refineries had been deactivated, with 274 reservoirs destroyed, and 1,561 metal tanks also destroyed, while 49 trucks were seized in the process.
According to him, the problem is not only security but social, as locals in most areas where illegal refiners operate unknowingly serve as their employees by mistaking them for operatives of licensed companies for oil exploration and production.
“It is not abnormal to involve non-state actors for protection of oil pipelines and other critical infrastructure as it is done in Cambodia and Mexico, which produced desired results,” he said.
But the two examples of Cambodia and Mexico are not the best security examples for any country to willfully emulate. Mexico is largely controlled by drug lords and criminal gangs that seem to be more powerful than government security forces and are known for also compromising or corrupting conventional security networks or forcing them to do their bidding.
They are also known to finance and influence the entry of people into top political and bureaucratic positions in the Mexican society. As a result, Mexico has one of the worst violent criminal and murder rates in the world and can hardly represent the best security model for Nigeria to copy. Although Nigeria is ranked 16th and higher than Mexico by World Population Review in terms of crime rate, Mexico is also ranked 39th, which is still very high, dangerous, and worrisome on a scale of 136 countries.
It is also curious why the successful security policy examples of globally acclaimed leading oil producers and profiteers such as the United States of America, Saudi Arabia, and Russia cannot be copied and executed by relevant authorities in Nigeria. The three countries are ranked better on the World Population Review security index, where the US is ranked 56, Saudi Arabia 121, and Russia 86.
And if that may be considered too tall a dream, among Nigeria’s OPEC peers, the United Arab Emirates is ranked 135, Qatar 136, and Oman 132 on the same index under review, meaning that Nigeria can also learn from the security strategies of these nations in relation to the protection of people and important national energy assets.
Rather, in a bid to curb crude oil theft in the country, the Nigerian government in August 2022 called for bids to monitor and secure oil pipelines and other assets, and the multi-billion-naira pipeline surveillance contract was awarded to a company owned and managed by Chief Government Ekpemupolo, who is better known as Tompolo, and is former leader of the violent militant group called Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.
Reacting to the latest crude oil theft discovered in the Niger Delta, the Chief of Defense Staff, General Lucky Irabor, and the GCEO of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), have vowed to unmask the saboteurs behind the illegal four-kilometer pipeline that is connected to the sea to siphon crude oil.
Both Irabor and Kyari made the vow during a joint visit to the recently discovered illegal loading port attached to the Trans Escravos pipeline at Yokre Flow Station in Ogulagha Oil Field, Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
However, it is rather strange why Irabor could not carry out the threat he is ushering at the moment long before now when his constituency commands the highest share of the national budget annually and have at their disposal weapons, ammunition, armed personnel, security intelligence, as well as military hardware for land, air and sea-based operations.
Strangely and instead, it was efforts from the most unlikely of all sources that made possible the discovery of the nine-year old crime affecting a federally-controlled oil business that is always guarded by heavily armed federal troops. Can it also be argued that, with this current security trend and the challenge of its management, Boko Haram may one day police some parts of northern Nigeria for public good and safety in the near future? And, also, with all the historic success recorded by Tompolo’s security outfit, Tantita in such a short period of time, can the government convincingly justify the huge military budgets and security votes it expends yearly to man the nation’s oil facilities and assets?
General Irabor, while speaking with journalists after the visit to the area, said the Federal Government would ensure an extensive investigation into the revelation by the ex-militant’s security company.
“This is an eye-opener. We are going to ensure an extensive investigation into the whole revelation to get to the roots to review the entire security architecture across the board amongst other issues,” said Irabor.
However, government security personnel have always been stationed in the oil rich Niger Delta.
Kyari, on his part, also pledged that an extensive investigation would be conducted into the illegal pipeline, noting that anyone that is involved would be dealt with according to the law.
“Anyone involved in this matter, either from the host community, community contractors, government security agencies, or workers of the oil companies including NNPC and Shell, will be dealt with,” he said.
Furthermore, the NNPC helmsman maintained that “the illegal attachments on the Trans Escravos pipeline are professionally done and the result is that they connected this to an inactive pipeline which should not carry crude in a normal instance,” which suggests a likely case of insider collaboration at high levels.
“And we have seen that this line flows all the way parallel to the two other active Trans Escravos pipelines. And this is a good revelation,” he added.
Both Kyari and Irabor confirmed how preliminary investigations showed that the illegal pipeline led to an illegal loading point in the creeks where large volumes of crude oil were illegally being diverted and stolen.
But this was after the General Manager of Tantita Security Services, Chief Keston Pondi, who conducted the CDS and NNPC Limited boss around the site, said that from observations, the illegal business had been on for a very long time.
In his own words, “to get to this level is not easy. We were hinted about the two illegal attachments that were foiled. We are still escalating. We are combing this lineup with Ogidigben to Madaho.
“This particular one inspected by the NNPC Limited GCEO team is located at Yokre Flow Station. Only God knows how many more points we are going to see as we go further. As of this moment, we have discovered 15 points so far. The identified 15 points were attached to the Trans Escravos pipeline at different locations.”
Using his experience in the security of the area, Pondi pondered about the sources from where such crimes may be planned and unleashed against the Nigerian state and its people.
His words: “It is obvious that a lot of people are complicit in these illegal oil activities. Whether it is in the security sector, host communities, even in the oil industry, if you know that you have been involved and nobody is doing anything about it, this is the time to evacuate.”
The period of this grand theft almost perfectly coincides with the lifespan of President Muhammadu Buhari’s APC administration that was ushered in by Nigerians following their conviction about the party’s anti-corruption manifesto and age-long posturing of their presidential candidate, even during the 2014/2015 electoral campaigns. This makes one to wonder whether the elements behind this treasonable act willfully intended to rubbish the anti-corruption crusade of the APC-led government or the criminals were rather protected by those who could have arrested and prosecuted them.
And the fact that violent militants, perennial lawbreakers and national economic saboteurs in the form of either current or ex-agitators have become more reliable in protecting national assets than constitutional or professional security and defense institutions is largely worrisome and represents a security anomaly rather than a national security strategy that should be considered with great caution.
This could also give unprecedented impetus to criminal gangs to become encouraged and strengthened in order to also seek to procure official government financing in exchange for their own security and protection services.
While this is now taking place in the Niger Delta, it may become an emerging sector, as criminal and questionable as it may look, and spread to other regions of the country, with IPOB or Boko Haram members, either repentant or unrepentant, also coming on board with bids to provide security to Nigerians on a commercial and market-driven basis, leveraging the Niger Delta example, where Tompolo is now almost a national model.
It is therefore tempting to believe that the late Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau of either blessed or cursed memories, could have probably become a security provider instead of a security compromiser in his own region, only if he had “repented” earlier and had lived long enough to this season of government security contracts to ex-offenders.
But this is rather dangerous and capable of creating fertile breeding grounds for rival criminal gangs to spring up or increase in operational size and violently compete for territorial influence, inflicting untold damage to lives and property and jeopardizing economic activities, both at local, regional and national levels.
For instance, some former Niger Delta insurgents have threatened to blow up pipelines within OML 28 and OML 30, if they are not included in the pipeline surveillance contract awarded to Tompolo’s company.
The N48 billion pipeline surveillance contract given to Tompolo has been generating reactions and controversy, as some groups are also agitating for their own inclusion in the multi-billion-naira deal. The latest threat has come from some aggrieved ex-militants under the OML 28 and OML 30 cluster host communities, threatening to blow up pipelines if they are not given pipeline surveillance contracts.
The leader of the group, General Do-Good, had issued a 48-hours ultimatum to NNPC Limited to address their concerns, warning that failure to do so will make them blow-up pipelines in their communities. Do-Good lamented that Isokoland was being marginalized, while warning that any attempt by Tompolo to guard pipelines in the area will be resisted.
“We in oil mining lease (OML 28 and OML 30) cluster 5 and 6 from different communities of Isoko, are being marginalized.
“We have pipelines crisscrossing nearly every community in our area, but Tompolo has hijacked our surveillance job, so, we are doing this to send a warning that we need our share of the pipeline job. We need our share now or we blow our lines off. We have been marginalized for too long.
“We will blow everything that has to do with oil in Isoko land if these issues are not addressed within 24 hours. Tompolo cannot come to Isoko to control our oil.
“We have been marginalized too long. It is not only Ijaws that have oil in the Niger Delta region. We, the Isokos have some of the largest oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta region but we are usually marginalized and treated with disdain. Even in the Presidential Amnesty program, we were treated shabbily and in every other thing coming to the Niger Delta region, we are not well treated.
“Even in this pipeline surveillance contract we have been schemed out so we are giving them 24 hours to call us and address our needs otherwise, every pipeline and oil facility in Isoko will be blown up.
“We are waiting for Tompolo to enter our territory to guard any pipeline here, we are not afraid of him. We are not against him getting his share of the pipeline surveillance contract but he should not come here to lord over us, we want our own pipeline surveillance job to be given to us, otherwise we will seize all the oil facilities and shoot all of them down.”
Such militant territorial wars could eventually erode any previous gains which have been made either in the energy sector or any other sector of the Nigerian economy, as the current free market system that has taken a strong foothold in Nigeria has continued to evolve and become intricately interlinked.
One of the most prime victims could be the recently listed Geregu Power Plc (GPP), which is owned by Femi Otedola and is gas-fired with feedstock coming from a section of the vulnerable network of Niger Delta pipelines under review.
GPP was recently admitted into the Main board of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) by way of listing by Introduction (LBI) with the admittance of 2.5 billion ordinary shares of 50 kobo each at N100 per share. It is the first power generation company (Genco) in Nigeria to be listed on the NGX Main Board, adding N250 billion to the market capitalization of NGX.
As a result of this, GPP’s stock gained 10 per cent, or N10, on its first trading day on the NGX to close at N110 per share, up from N100 per share. The gain pushed its market capitalization to N275 billion from the initial N250 billion at the moment it was listed. A further breakdown of trading activities on the first market day for the company showed that it traded 8.5 million volume of shares at N935 million in one day.
However, this positive capital market debut could all be negated if the complex security situation surrounding the integrity of energy assets in the Niger Delta that feed the entire nation is not urgently resolved.
The number of discovered illegal tapping points keeps increasing everyday since Tompolo was given the pipeline surveillance job.
Valuechain learnt that in just over two months after he was awarded the multi-billion naira oil security contract in the Niger Delta region, Tompolo’s company has discovered at least 58 illegal points in Delta and Bayelsa States where crude oil is being stolen.
