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Nigeria oil was being stolen for nine years via illegal pipeline
Kaieteur News – During their clampdown campaign, Nigerian authorities discovered an illegal pipeline that has been stealing crude for nine years from one of the country’s largest oil terminal.
The shocking revelation was made on Tuesday by Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari.
According to Nigerian reports, Kyari disclosed that the illegal pipeline was connected to the Forcados Terminal, which is operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a local subsidiary of British oil giant, Shell.
The official told the Nigerian Senate of the discovery of the four-kilometre (2.5-mile) connection from the Forcados export terminal, which exports abound 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. Kyari said the major oil export terminal had its products diverted into the sea.
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Director, Mallam Mele Kyari
“Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented,” Kyari said.
He also said, “But in rising up to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPC has in recent time, in collaboration with relevant security agencies, clamped down on the economic saboteurs. In the course of the clampdown within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1,561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized.”
However, he noted that the most striking of all, is the four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation undetected for almost a decade.
It was reported that while thieves often tap land-based pipelines to siphon oil undetected, an illegal line in the ocean is highly unusual and suggests a more sophisticated theft operation.
Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary told Reuters via email, “SPDC appreciates the additional surveillance conducted on behalf of NNPC to deal with illegal activities. However, the recently discovered theft pipeline is approximately 30km away from SPDC’s Forcados terminal. It is not within SPDC’s pipeline right of way.”
While Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil exporter the country is losing potential revenue from some 600,000 bpd of oil, Kyari said, as some is stolen.
In August, crude oil exports fell below one million bpd for the first time since at least 1990 as a result, starving Nigeria of crucial cash.
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