By Oyintari Ben
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a business owned by Government Ekpemupolo alias Tompolo, has found another enormous illicit crude oil pipeline tied to the Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in Delta State, which is directly connected to the high sea.
According to a source close to Tantita Security, the illicit pipeline was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in the Burutu Local Government Area of the state when it was discovered.
The source stated that the Forcados Export Terminal in the town of Ogulagha is less than a kilometre away from the plugged point that was recently identified and is directly behind a military protection station.
It pointed out that the bunkers transport the crude to the sea through an abandoned AGIP facility for loading and subsequent movement abroad, adding that the illegal pipeline was connected to another abandoned pipeline owned by AGIP Petroleum Company Limited that was nearby and was also abandoned.
According to reports, the Forcados Terminal receives crude oil from the Forcados Oil Pipeline System, the second largest pipeline network in the oil-producing region, after the Bonny Oil Pipeline System in the eastern Niger Delta. The Forcados Terminal has a nameplate capacity to export 400,000 barrels per day.
Additionally, some Nigerian independents and International Oil Companies (IOCs) active in the western Niger Delta pump oil to the Forcados Oil Terminal for export.
It qould be recalled that recently, eight suspected members of a crude oil syndicate were ambushed and detained by Tompolo, while they were pumping crude oil into the improvised 87-meter-long ocean-going vessel.
The MT Deino vessel was turned over to the Joint Task Force, JTF, and was later set on fire.
