NNPCL Uncovered Over 150 Illegal Pipelines, Destroyed 172 Unapproved Refineries In One Month

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), has continue to record significant milestone in its fight against crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism as it destroyed 172 illegal refineries and uncovered 150 illegal connections.

The National Oil company, recorded this feat between September 30 and October 27, 2023, based on analysis conducted by THE WHISTLER from a weekly data published by the company.

During the period under review, the NNPC reported a total of 625 incidents of oil theft and vandalism.

Revenues from crude oil, forms over 95 per cent of foreign exchange proceeds from export.

According to the NNPCL, at least 400,000 barrels of crude oil are lost daily, translating to a lost of $34.8 million daily.

However, with the effort of the NNPCL and the nation’s security agencies, the national oil company has recorded successes in uncovering 43 cases of pipeline vandalism, 37 cases of vessel AIS (Automatic Identification System) infraction, and 20 cases of illegal storage within the period under review.

The NNPCL also reported 89 cases of vehicle arrest and seized 94 wooden boats during the period under review. It also tracked nine vessels, out of which three were successfully arrested.

According to the NNPCL, eight oil spill cases were recorded in 28 days.

On a regional level of the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta, the NNPCL reported 37 cases of oil theft-related activities in the Deep Blue Sea, 151 cases in its Western region, 235 cases in the Central region and 202 cases in the Eastern region respectively.

The NNPCL has continued to take proactive measures in the war against oil theft and other related cases, which has also led to the arrest of 24 suspects between October 21 and 27 alone.

A recent report by the national oil company revealed that security operatives acting on intelligence received from informants in Ughelli, Delta State, intercepted a truck transporting double-bagged sacks of diesel disguised as fertilizer.

Its partnership with the security agencies also led to the successful detention of a vessel named MV Chovwe, suspected of carrying unlawfully sourced crude oil in the Escravos river.

The NNPCL said it handed over the detained vessel to the Nigerian Army 5 Battalion for further investigation.

A report by the Nigerian Extractive International Transparency Initiative had estimated that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N25trn between 2009 and 2020.

Since the commencement of the coalition between the NNPCL, security agencies and host communities in 2021, Nigerians have started seeing results as crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism have reduced drastically.

This has made the Nigerian oil and gas industry to achieve its highest crude oil and condensate output in nearly 18 months, with a production of 1.72 million barrels of crude and condensate in the month of September this year.

This improvement is the result of months of collaboration with operators to co-create unique solutions to peculiar challenges, mainly evacuation issues faced by individual operators, stakeholder management, political will, and support from government institutions.

This improvement is directly attributable to the reopening of operations along corridors with a history of security challenges and the restart of production from facilities that have been shut down for extended periods due to evacuation challenges.

Others include the completion of Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) of some assets, completion, and hook-up of infill wells, and critical well intervention projects.