Oil Theft: Civil Defence, Navy Express Concern

The Nigerian Navy and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have expressed worry about security precautions and the best course of action to address the problem of crude oil theft in the nation.

The security authorities made this information public at the Annual Energy and Labour Summit, which is currently in its inaugural year and is being organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Abuja.

Energy Transition and its Impact on the Workforce in Nigeria's Oil and Gas Sector is the theme of the PENGASSAN Energy and Labour Summit 2022.

Commodore Stephen Ibrahim, Director of Operations, Nigerian Navy, claimed that attempts were being made to acquire more equipment to manage the waterways in his speech on the "Menace of Crude Oil Theft, Government Response, and the Way Forward."

He claimed Nigeria had one of the greatest responses along the coast of West Africa, with an area of around 84,000 square nautical lands.

“You can imagine what it takes to maintain 24 hours presence in our waterways. We can never have enough equipment which is why we also complement it with the use of Maritime Domain Awareness Capacity Equipment.

“To maintain this equipment take a lot of resources, to fuel an average ship can take six tankers for it to remain seven days at sea.

“There are other demands that require resources but we try our best to maintain a presence at sea.

“We have three operational commands, eastern, western and central naval commands and each has been directed to maintain two capital ships which are also intensive,” he said.

He claimed that in order to ensure efficient operations, the navy officers underwent continuous training and retraining while the commands and officials were observed by cameras at the headquarters.

“Anyone found wanting for infractions must be surely punished,” he added.

Speaking about the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Heroic Idun, which arrived in Nigerian seas on August 8, 2022, he claimed that the vessel was questioned to see whether it has regulatory or approval from NNPC Limited to load.

Ibrahim claimed that when they found out it was unapproved, the Nigerian naval officials told the ship to accompany them until they could approve its presence in the country's waters.

He further said that after being questioned repeatedly by the captain of a Nigerian naval ship, the ship sped up rather than turning and indicated it needed to contact the woman's agency.

He criticised the fact that the collaborators frequently made their operations difficult because a Nigerian shipping agent had instructed the foreign ship not to respond to the Nigerian Navy.

He Director stated that although it attempted to load, the vessel never did so and was instead detained by Equatorial Guinea while efforts and negotiations to return it to Nigeria for questioning on various allegations were ongoing.

“A decision was being made not to sink her, a large carrier of millions of metric tonnes of crude to avoid collateral damage rather we allowed it to go into the next country for interception.

“The best option we could have is that among the coast of Golf of Guinea countries, we have the under architecture, a collaborative effort among the coastal Naval officers where we exchange information on piracy and vessels.

“So when this vessel continued speeding, we transferred the information to Equatorial Guinea that the vessel refused to stop and was leaving our waterways, then entering theirs because the vessel already reported to International Maritime Bureau that she was under pirate attack.

“We are trying to keep a clean slate of not having a pirate attack on our waters,” he added.

He continued by saying that the ship had not loaded and that the navy headquarters had frowned upon the persistent rumours that it had loaded three million MT of crude.

On the vessel that was recently wrecked near Warri as a result of oil theft, he claimed that the Chief of Defence Staff was involved in the highest and most strategic decision-making process.

The commodore added that any vessel being used to conduct illicit business could be properly destroyed to serve as a deterrence to others engaging in unlawful activities. He also claimed that a particular vessel had been involved in violations throughout time.

Regarding the use of technology, he said that it was always changing and mentioned that the NNPC Limited had a control centre that was run in a cooperative effort to stop oil theft.

He declared that the navy would keep looking into ways to monitor oil thefts using technological equipment in cooperation with other security agencies and international partners.

Dr Benito Eze, Assistant Commandant General, Directorate of Critical National Assets and Infrastructure, NSCDC, who spoke about the future, stated that electronic surveillance was being used gradually to handle the threat.

Speaking from the standpoint of the NSCDC, he advocated for the full implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act 2022 to engage the host communities in the creation of a legal framework and financial structure.

He also demanded the elimination of the petroleum subsidy and the payment of the required percentage to the host communities in order to completely deregulate the industry.