By Kingsley Omonobi, Ben Agande,
Henry Umoru & Michael Eboh
ABUJA—Group Managing Director of
the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, NNPC, Dr Emmanuel
Kachikwu has disclosed that oil theft
would be eradicated in the next eight
months as the corporation has put in
place measures to check the menace
and bring perpetrators to book.
Speaking at a one-day seminar on
Security in the Gulf of Guinea,
organised by the Gusau Institute in
Abuja, Dr Kachikwu said the fight to
stop oil theft was not only for the
NNPC but also all Nigerians, as the
effect of crude oil theft was on all
Nigerians.
Ibe kachikwu
According to the NNPC boss, some
of these measures include the
introduction of drones to monitor the
pipelines as well as patrol the
country’s coastal waters; equipping
and increasing the capabilities of the
security services to carry out their
responsibilities and the engagement
of communities to police pipelines in
their areas.
While promising to introduce
transparency in running the NNPC, Dr
Kachikwu revealed that the PPMC
would be broken up into several
companies with one solely in charge
of pipelines while another would be
in charge of products at the depots
He said: “The job of keeping our
country afloat and making sure that
the revenues from oil are
transparently received and spent is
the main purpose of my work. When I
was first asked by the President to
come and take over this job, my first
reaction was trepidation and fear,
largely because over the last two
decades, we have gone topsy-turvy
with our oil industry. We, as a
country, have lost so much both in
terms of revenue and international
perception. I carry a responsibility
that is not just making sure that the
oil industry generates so much
revenue, but also a responsibility of
bringing back high level of
transparency in terms of perception.
What is happening is that a few
people do bad things but it rubs off
on Nigeria. Many Nigerians are doing
the right thing.
“Nigeria is the eighth largest
producer of oil in the world but you
probably would not see that as you
traverse our country because a large
volume of oil produced lands in the
pockets of very few people and many
of us remain extremely poor. That is
because over the years, we have
been unable to transparently deal
with our oil.
“Oil theft is a major issue for us. We
lose on average of about 50,000
barrels of oil. We lose about $3-$4
billion of revenue and that is just in
terms of crude oil itself. When you
get to pipelines, most of our
pipelines are ruptured and attacked
fairly frequently. Last year alone,
between June 2014 and June 2015,
we recorded between 3,400 to 4,000
attacks on the various pipelines in
the country. The effect is a shut-in of
about 250,000 barrels a day and
when you calculate that, you have a
net loss of over $7 billion.
8 months deadline
“A lot is happening. More challenges
are going to be there but we are
going to be able to solve the
problems. We have given ourselves
eight months within which we will
hopefully completely eradicate the
issue of oil theft in Nigeria. It is a
focus that is very firm, very
determined and in the process, you
are going to find individuals who
constitute some of the highest level
of personnel in this economy. Oil
theft is not just about the poor in the
society. It is about the very rich and
it takes a rich man to be able to get
the market for the crude and enter
into the carriage contract. It is the
rich in the country that are actually
the problem of NNPC and not the
poor. We will address that very
solidly, and we will achieve result for
Nigeria. If we don’t do that we would
have lost the essence of our
appointment into this position.
Working with security agencies, and
using lots of technology we will
ensure that this business stops. It is
critical that the Nigerian face is not
seen as a face of theft but a face of
decency.”
He noted that because of the
constant vandalism of the country’s
pipelines, the refineries may not be
able to function effectively except the
issue of pipeline vandalism was
resolved, adding that in order to
check the menace, the security
architecture around the pipelines was
being re-engineered.
“The pipelines that traverse our
country which are supposed to carry
crude into our refineries are
perpetually harassed and the net
effect is that we resorted to using
marines to carry cargoes into our
refineries. What it meant is that no
matter what you do with our
refineries today, unless that is
solved, we cannot operate the
refineries. Every month, I sit and try
to decide whether I should move
crude to the refineries or sell the
crude and be able to fund the other
accounts. The marine services are
too expensive for me.
“In the last one year, we have lost
about 350 lives — NNPC staff,
policemen, community members —
as a result of attempts to breach
these pipelines.
“Let me get to the export aspect of
it. You get calls from all parts of the
world — China, America, alleging that
cargoes of Nigerian crude are lying
in those countries’ territories, most
of them sold. We are dealing with a
case currently of over 14 cargoes in
China, where all the documentation
appears to be from the NNPC. It
might as well be that by the time we
finish with the documentation of
these cargoes, we will get to find out
that they are cargoes probably out of
Iran or Iraq who may be trying to sell
their goods as a result of the
embargo. But for whatever it is worth,
Nigeria has become known,
unfortunately as the country with the
highest level of crude theft and
sophisticated movement of funds.
Use of drones
“It is a major concern for the
President and a major concern for all
of us in the industry and we are
focused on trying to find solutions.
We have marshaled out an armada of
approaches to this which include
incorporating drones to check
movement within our territorial waters
towards the ship; we are looking at
logistical ways of changing
something at our crude oil loading
bays; we are trying to equip the Navy
sufficiently, in terms of skills and not
in terms of arsenal. We are trying to
take the bull by the horns to ensure
that they patrol within the maritime
zone.
“But more fundamentally, the
pipelines that carry oil and crude will
have to be policed. The present
attempt at policing them has not
worked, so we are thinking of
changing the personnel, using more
of the military but also getting into
dealing with the community which
ultimately is the best security in
dealing with these pipelines, as we
try to create more incentives for them
to own the pipelines,” he said.
Speaking on the new measures being
introduced, the NNPC boss said: “It
is one of many efforts that we have
put in place. But most importantly,
we are trying to improve on the
psyche of the people who work in
the NNPC. We are trying to make
them understand that there is a
difference between a corporation and
a civil service because ultimately we
begin to realize that we are here to
run a business for Nigeria, we have
no need being there,” he said.
Earlier in his keynote address, the
Prime Minister of Sao Tome and
Principe, Mr Patrice Emery Trovoada
said Nigeria should place less
emphasis on oil production and
should instead consider the option of
exploring other resources like fish in
the Gulf of Guinea in order to
diversify its revenue base.
He called for greater cooperation
amongst countries of the Gulf of
Guinea to check the incidence of
piracy and oil theft, adding that his
country would continue to cooperate
with Nigeria to check the menace.
Navy to complement drones
Meanwhile, the Chief of Naval Staff,
Vice Admiral Ibok Ibas said,
yesterday, that the Nigerian Navy will
collaborate with other security
agencies to ensure that any measure
that will result to checkmating illegal
oil bunkering and pipeline
vandalization is nipped in the bud.
Speaking against the background of
disclosure by Dr. Kachikwu that
drones will be deployed to ensure
that oil theft is checkmated in the
country, Vice Admiral Ibas said:
“First, we are deploying electronic
surveillance equipment to ensure that
this menace is brought to an end.
“Secondly, the Navy has standby
response teams ready to move at the
quickest deployment because even if
the drones are deployed as disclosed
by the NNPC GMD, it is the Navy that
will be required to implement the
response aspect”.
The CNS who spoke to news men last
night further insisted “we are all
working in collaboration with NNPC
and other security agencies to end
this menace which has impacted
negatively on our nations’ economy
and revenue base. I am assuring you
that we will give all the support
necessary to achieve the goal as
enunciated by the NNPC GMD.”
What drones do
Drones are automated (pilotless)
micro aircraft used for security
monitoring and surveillance
purposes, often described as “eyes
in the sky.”
According to the Social Science
Research Network, SSRN, drones are
“less expensive and more efficient
than conventional aircraft at tracking
the movements of large numbers of
people without their knowledge. The
capabilities of onboard instruments
like high-resolution cameras, infrared
devices, facial recognition systems,
and other sensory enhancing
technologies will make it virtually
impossible to shield oneself from
government watch.”
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