The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has disclosed that 188 incidents of oil theft were recorded in the past week.
The state-owned energy company said the incidents were recorded from August 24 to 30.
In a visual report, the NNPC stated, “Between the 24th and 30th of August 2024, a total of 188 incidents of oil theft were recorded across several locations in the Niger Delta from different incident sources.”
It was learnt that 89 illegal refineries were located and dismantled in one week.
According to NNPC, several illegal connections were uncovered during the week in Bayelsa, Abia and Rivers States.
Illegal refineries were also destroyed in Abia and Rivers States.
The NNPC disclosed that illegal storage sites resembling pond-like reservoirs were discovered in Abia.
At the same time, crude oil spills occurred in Abia, Rivers and Bayelsa as a result of illegal connections.
It was added that vandalism incidents were noted and a boat carrying metals from vandalised oil wellheads was accosted in Rivers.
On land, trucks and vehicles carrying stolen crude oil were said to have been seized at various locations in Delta State.
Wooden boats conveying stolen crude oil were also intercepted in Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa-Ibom States.
It was revealed that 31 suspected oil thieves were arrested last week and handed over to government security agents for further investigations.
While lamenting the spate of oil theft in the Niger Delta region, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, Mele Kyari, contended that going by the volume of oil stolen daily and the arrogance with which the perpetrators operate, crude oil theft was the most humongous and virulent economic crime in Nigeria that must attract the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
“Today, we have disconnected up to 4,846 illegal pipes connected to our pipelines, which is out of 5,543 such illegal connection points. That means there are a vast number of such connections that we have not removed.
“These things don’t just happen from the blues. They happen in communities and locations we all know. As we remove one illegal connection, another one comes up. It is sad,” Kyari told the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, during a meeting in March.
According to the NNPCL boss, this kind of oil theft does not happen anywhere else in the world.
“When we say illegal connections, they are not invisible things, they are big pipes that require some level of expertise to be installed. Some of them are of the same size as the trunk line itself. No one would produce crude oil knowing full well that it is not going to get to the terminal. That is why nobody is putting money into the business. So, you can’t grow production,” he lamented.
