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If there is anything that has been a source of worry to Nigerians as a people and the government as an institution, it is crude oil theft. Through oil theft, the country has not only lost millions of naira but has also found it difficult to meet the supply quota allocated by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Official sources say 700,000 barrels of crude are stolen out of Nigeria’s 1.8 million barrels per day supply quota. This means that at the prevailing average price of $75 per barrel, Nigeria loses a conservative estimate of about $52,500,000 daily to oil theft.
The network of crude oil thieves can be both intimidating and overwhelming. It is a criminal cartel that government is battling, with a firm determination to rout. This can explain why the government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) resolved to engage the services of a private security company to police oil pipelines, in collaboration with the Armed Forces of Nigeria.
We recall that Mallam Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of the NNPCL, in defending that critical decision, insisted that, “we need private contractors to man the right of way to these pipelines…. And we believe we made the right decision.” Kyari’s burning drive, as he has often acknowledged publicly, is to position the NNPCL in the mould of Brazil’s PETROBRAS and Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO, all profit-driven entities with integrity.
From the success stories being recorded in protecting oil pipelines, it is glaring that government, nay NNPCL, scored the bull’s eye.
Since Tantita Security Company, a firm owned by High Chief Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, started executing the assignment of watching over oil pipelines, the level of bleeding in the oil industry, through oil theft, has reduced. The security company has established a pattern of success with a clear road map and masterful dexterity in navigating the creeks, fighting against pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft.
One of the cheering news is what happened on Friday, July 7, 2023, when operatives of Tantita Security Company, reportedly intercepted a vessel, “MT Tura 11,” on the Escravos Sea in Delta State. The vessel was said to be conveying 150 metric tonnes of stolen crude oil when it was intercepted. Such a feat cannot but elicit hope that the problem of oil theft would be reduced to the barest minimum, if not eliminated.
It is incumbent on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration therefore to consolidate on the gains being recorded. The nation and this administration need the earnings from oil and gas export to finance its programmes, in the face of Naira depreciation, falling Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, rising national and foreign debts and hike in inflation. It will be counter-productive for the government to contemplate aborting the winning strategy, which has reduced oil theft, caused revenue increase and laid the foundation for the meeting of OPEC supply quota.
The tripartite engagements – consisting of the NNPCL, the Armed Forces and Tantita Security Company – is desirable. Kyari, while speaking at the 49th Session of the State House Briefing at the Presidential Villa, on August 20, 2022, had underlined this. He had stated: “The security agencies are doing their part. (But) end-to-end pipeline surveillance would require the involvement of private entities and community stakeholders.”
The recent report on the country’s earnings by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, which valued crude oil exports at $11 billion during the first five months of 2023, clearly demonstrates an improvement on the earnings, compared to the same period in 2022. On this score, the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration deserves commendation for having the courage to approve the tripartite security arrangement. This initiative is saving the nation’s economy, and the environment too.
We have no doubt that President Tinubu has the courage to dare and would fight oil theft. The appointment of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as the National Security Adviser (NSA) adds impetus to this. Ribadu has proved to be fearless and incorrigible when he stands on principle, as demonstrated when he was the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). By the way he fought corruption, taking on the high and mighty, we are confident that he would encourage the arrest and prosecution of oil thieves as well as seizing of assets of culprits. We also urge him to work with Tantita to sustain this profitable task.
Naming and shaming the guilty are irreducible actions that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must guarantee in the fight against crude oil theft and other criminal cartels bleeding the nation if we must break the myth of the untouchables, sustaining this workable partnership with Tantita.
