Amid perennial fuel crisis in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has disclosed that 188 cases of oil theft were recorded in the last one week.
According to the nation’s energy giant, the incidents were recorded from August 24 to 30 across different locations in the Niger Delta.
D’GalleryTV reports that oil theft criminality in some parts of oil-rich states in the country, particularly the Niger Delta Region, accounts for fuel scarcity and price hike which has put the nation’s economy on the edge with the attendant hardship perennially bedeviling the citizenry.
The NNPCL which disclosed the incident from a visual report, said: “Between the 24th and 30th of August, 2024, a total of 188 incidents of oil theft were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta from different incident sources.”
It also disclosed that 89 illegal refineries were discovered and dismantled in one week, just as several illegal connections were unearthed during the week in Bayelsa, Abia and Rivers States. Illegal refineries were also destroyed in Abia and Rivers states.
Illegal storage sites resembling pond-like reservoirs were discovered in Abia according to NNPC.
It also disclosed that crude oil spills occurred in Abia, Rivers and Bayelsa due to illegal connections.
Vandalism incidents were also recorded, while a boat carrying metals from vandalised oil wellheads was accosted in Rivers.
On land, trucks and vehicles carrying stolen crude oil were reportedly seized at various locations in Delta State.
Also, wooden boats conveying stolen crude oil were intercepted in Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom States.
Reports also disclosed that 31 suspected oil thieves were arrested last week and handed over to government security agents for further investigations.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, who lamented the spate of oil thefts in the Niger Delta, contended that going by the volume of oil stolen daily and the impunity with which the perpetrators operate, crude oil theft was one of the most offensive economic crime in Nigeria that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) must address urgently.
“Today, we have disconnected up to 4,846 illegal pipes connected to our pipelines, which is out of 5,543 such illegal connection points. That means there are a vast number of such connections that we have not removed,” Kyari said.
“These things don’t just happen from the blues. They happen in communities and locations we all know. As we remove one illegal connection, another one comes up. It is sad,” Kyari had told the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, during a meeting in March.
He lamented that the spate of oil thefts perpetrated in Nigeria never happened anywhere in the world.
“When we say illegal connections, they are not invisible things, they are big pipes that require some level of expertise to be installed. Some of them are of the same size as the trunk line itself. No one would produce crude oil knowing full well that it is not going to get to the terminal. That is why nobody is putting money into the business. So, you can’t grow production,” Kyari said.
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