Kyari Seeks Special Court For Prosecution Of Crude Oil Thieves, Pipeline Vandals

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari is seeking the support of the Judiciary to set up a special court for the prosecution of crude oil thieves and pipeline vandals in the country.

The NNPC Boss said this when he said a courtesy visit to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Hon. Justice John Tosho.

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The Group CEO was accompanied on the visit by the NNPC Ltd Group Executive Director, Upstream, Adokiye Tombomieye.

During the visit, the GCEO sought the High Court’s support towards the creation of a special court/tribunal to ensure speedy trial of crude oil thieves and pipeline vandals.

Kyari who described these actions as a serious threat to Nigeria’s oil production, revenue generation and by extension energy security, noted that a special court to execute such cases will deter would-be criminals and assure investors of value for their investments.

Nigeria relies on crude oil revenue for over 90 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings and about 70 per cent of government revenue.

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In the first quarter of this year, Nigeria lost $1bn in revenue to crude oil theft and production shut-in caused by pipeline vandalism.

Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari and the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, Hon. Justice John Tosho

With a daily loss of over 700,000 barrels of crude oil to theft, pipeline vandalism and production shut-ins,
caused by tapping of crude oil from a maze of pipelines owned by oil majors, experts have said that it has become compelling for the government to adopt a holistic approach to address the crude oil revenue loss challenge.

At an average price of $100 per barrel crude oil price, it means that Nigeria is currently losing about $70m monthly to crude oil thieves and production shut-ins.

The high level of oil losses caused by crude theft had led to a drop in daily oil production from 1.8 million barrels per day in the last three years to just a little over one million bpd.

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The NNPC Ltd is currently using state of the art technology to gather the much needed intelligence that would assist security agencies to go after crude oil thieves and pipeline vandals.

Nigeria sits atop 36 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and 206 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves but has seen a massive drop in its crude oil earnings.

But the country had in recent times not been able to harness the potentials of this resources because of oil theft and losses caused by the illegal siphoning of crude oil from oil facilities.

The quantity of oil delivered into the various crude oil terminals in the country have been limited by the activities of pipelines vandals and organized groups.

With oil theft and pipeline vandalism overwhelming Nigeria’s oil business in recent weeks, the NNPC Ltd is adopting the Saudi Aramco’s model of using video surveillance to monitor its pipelines carrying crude oil from wells to flow stations in the Niger Delta.

The surveillance system is known as the Central Coordination, Data Integration and Activation Control Room

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Through the Data Control Centre, the NNPC has the capability to see and monitor the movement of vessels in the coast of Nigeria’s territorial waters in real time.

From the facility, officials of the NNPC, working with operatives of the Nigerian Navy can determine, in real time, if a vessel is carrying out operations within Nigeria’s coastal waters legally.

The Data Centre also uses an intelligence system to detect when an incident of crude oil theft has occured, the location, and the vessels involved.

Immediately such illegal operation has been established, officials of the Centre through it’s Incidents Reporting System will immediately escalate such threat to the security agencies for immediate action.

So far, over 22 million litres of stolen crude have been recovered through intelligence provided by the Data Centre.

Similarly, over 22 million litres of Diesel, 0.15 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit, and 0.76 million litres of kerosene have also been recovered from criminals.

Through the operation, 112 suspects have been arrested while 11 vehicles, 30-speed boats, 179 wooden boats, 37 trucks have been seized and destroyed.

Other items recovered according to are 959 metal tanks, 737 ovens, 452 dugout pits, 342 reservoirs and 355 cooking pots have been destroyed.

Similarly, 207 pumping machines, 12 welding machines, six power generators, and two drilling machines were recovered from crude oil thieves.

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