By John Ikani
The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, has described as unrealistic and impossible, the estimated amount of stolen crude oil in Nigeria.
In recent times, reports of stolen crude oil of about 200,000 to 400,000 barrels per day from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources have been in circulation with Nigerians accusing the Navy of complicity in the theft of Nigeria’s crude.
Nigeria, which was overtaken by Angola as Africa’s biggest oil producer in June, has been barely able to produce 65 per cent of its Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota owing to abysmal oil production output majorly blamed on crude theft.
While Nigeria’s allocation in July was 1.8 million barrels per day, the country was only able to produce a paltry 1.083 million barrels per day. This has negatively impacted the Nigerian economy with the value of the naira falling to an arguably all-time low of over N700.
But speaking on Channels Television’s NewsNight aired on Monday, the naval chief insisted that there is a significant miscalculation in determining how much Nigeria is losing in terms of oil theft because oil losses due to other factors are often lumped together as theft.
According to him: “We need to understand the differences between oil theft and oil losses. While oil theft is siphoning crude oil from vandalised pipes into barges, oil losses occur when there is known production, especially during shut-ins and force majeures as the Federal Government does not earn the desired revenue it should.
“Losses also occur as a result of metering errors on the operating platforms as read. But the volume of crude oil shot-ins from non-production is often added to figures for oil theft instead of declaring them as oil losses. This should not be.”
Alluding to reports that between 20,000 and 200,000 barrels of crude oil are being stolen daily in Nigeria, Vice Admiral Gambo said “100,000 barrels of crude is the equivalent of 15.8 million litres of crude oil requiring a five-ton barge to make 3,160 trips to convey to a mother vessel within a day.”
The CNS chief insisted that “even if there were enough barges to do this, it is highly unlikely given the heightened presence of security forces in the creeks and estuaries as well as the subsisting operations specifically targeted at this type of criminal activity.
“This is, of course, most unlikely considering the increased presence of security operatives in the maritime environment as well as the deluge of the subsisting operations of Dakata De Barawo by the Nigerian Navy.”
216 illegal refining sites destroyed in 5 months
Speaking further on operation Dakata De Barawo, Vice Admiral Gambo said over 41 million litres of diesel equivalent of N27bn were saved as a result of naval operations in the period under review.
According to him: “I must put on record that a review of Operation Dakatar Da Barawo in the last five months revealed over 216 illegal refining sites that were deactivated. We have over 2,920 metal storages and over 145 wooden boats that were destroyed during the period under review.
“Of course, in addition, oil thieves were by implication denied 41,308,340 litres which is equivalent to 366 or 60,241 barrels of crude oil. Regarding AGO (Automotive Gas Oil popularly known as diesel), we have 18,747,830 litres of illegally AGO.
“This has prevented over N27bn from getting to undeserving individuals which could be used to support criminals of all kinds in diverse ways. Though we are not yet there but achievement recorded thus far necessitated a review of the outrageous quantities of stolen crude oil.”
Thieving vessels intercepted in 5 weeks
The CNS further stated that the Navy’s facilities have in the last four weeks detected a number of vessels attempting to load crude and liquefied natural gas within offshore terminals without necessary documentation and approval from the relevant authorities like the NNPCL.
Vice Admiral Gambo listed such incidences that have occurred in the past four weeks to five weeks to include the arrest of MT Arabia, which is an LNG supertanker, which entered the country on the 12th of July to load liquefied natural gas without relevant documents.
He added that MT Trinity Arrow, which was also apprehended for entering without necessary approval only got clearance to load LNG on the 12th of July also after its papers were updated.
The latest, he said, is the supertanker, MT HEROIC which is 336 meters long, and 60 meters wide, describing it as a very massive ship.
“Imagine the size of three football fields and 1/3 more. It has the capacity of carrying 3 million barrels,” he reiterated.
The CNS added that talks were in progress to ensure the handover of the asset for a proper investigation into its actions and why it accused the Nigerian Navy of being sea pirates.
