A Vicious Cycle …Combating Oil Theft In Nigeria

As far back as July, 1988, one time Minister of Petroleum, Pro. Tam David-West, in what he called ‘a family meeting’ with Journalists, said Nigeria was losing N10 million annually to oil thieves. Nearly twenty five years after, rather than abate, crude oil theft is today one of the most lucrative businesses, next only to political power and kidnapping.

Last week, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Andrew Yakubu said Nigeria loses $12 billion to crude oil theft annually, a figure which when converted at as low a rate as N150 to a dollar, amounts to a whooping N1.8 trillion, although, Chief of Training and Operations, Defence Headquarters, Maj-Gen Lawrence Ngubane, said last week that the Joint Task Force (JTF) has been able to reduce crude oil theft from 60,000 barrels Per Day (BPD) to 23,0000bpd.

In a country where dependable statistical data management still remains a mirage, these figures can hardly be relied upon, but they nonetheless, help tell the sad story of how a national malady which years ago was a privileged trade for an influential few has become an all-comers occupation. Sadly, it now includes uniformed personnel depended upon to check the illicit trade.

The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Vice Admiral Dele Ezeoba attested to it recently when he accused some of his men assigned to crucial sea borders of being compromised, only to aid illegal oil-theft, with the warning that anyone caught would be dealt with decisively. That would not be the first time such high ranking security chief would be sounding such warning, yet the situation remains the same.

Last week Friday, at about 5pm, Okrika bound sea passengers were shocked to their marrows to find two outboard engine boats, coated in black substance suspected to be used for oil theft, carrying armed personnel wearing Nigerian Military camouflage, openly sharing money mid-sea off the shores of the Abuloma Jetty in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers State.

That was barely a day after Maj-Gen. Ngubane had warned men of the JTF in Bille, Degema Local Government Area of the state against aiding and abating oil theft, commonly called illegal bunkering.

But what is bunkering? When is it illegal? Or Legal.

The word bunkering is derived from the word ‘bunker’. According to the Collins’ Web Dictionary, ‘A bunker is a place, usually underground, that has been built with strong walls to protect it against heavy gunfire and bombing”. But the closest in meaning is a second definition which states, ‘A bunker is a container for Coal or other fuel’.

Understandably, the act of conveying products contained in such containers to a marine vessel, mid-sea is what is now re-coined as bunkering.

Bunkering, by itself was not always an illegal business, as some companies are licensed to own tank farms through which products are loaded and conveyed to large sea vessels that cannot berth in shallow rivers. Even at the Okrika Jetty, a ship as mighty as Baco-liner would have problem berthing and would have to anchor at the high seas for product purchase and loading. Bunkering is thus a major bridge.

Today, some of the same foreign vessels, owned by citizens from countries that near frequently tag Nigeria, as the most corrupt in the world, prefer to buy crude oil from illegal sources, sometimes in exchange for fire arms, at other times for peanuts. Even when it is officially loaded by say NNPC at a given jetty, officials assigned still under-quote their sales and share proceeds between Nigeria and their own pockets.

Unfortunately, such official crooks are not alone. This is why only very trusted staff are assigned roles at pump sites, as usually obtained at Police check-points, Immigration border posts and Naval Sea Control areas.

Understandably, just as some insects become more resistant, the more pesticides are used, oil theft has become a vicious cycle not limited to those who burst oil pipelines, or oil company officials who open pipe valves for thieves or uniformed men detailed to prevent the illicit trade but who end up joining the party.

Otherwise, how can a foreign ship illegally find her way into Nigeria’s sea borders, and for days, load stolen Nigerian crude, for peanuts and leave as easily as she came without the knowledge of the Nigerian Naval personnel detailed to be on guide duty?

What then is oil theft in general terms? The following categorisations may appear legitimate to many, but illegal refinery owners, today known as ‘Kpo-fire, are petty thieves, the others are armed robbers, So, when is oil said to have been stolen?

When oil blocks are shared among a cabal without recourse to the values of equity, fairness and justice. When as much as 83 per cent of oil blocks are owned by a few from the non-oil producing Northern part of Nigeria while, the rest of the forced amalgamation have barely 17 percent.

When a protest against such injustice, in course of debate on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) in the Senate, the Upper Chamber of Nigeria’s National Assembly, died as easily as it was raised because, on account of uneven numbers, illegal beneficiaries still remain judges in their own case, or in protection of their kith and kin.

Oil is said to have been stolen when oil bearing communities are denied any reward for the oil prospection and production activities in their land even if they suffer all manner of environmental degradation and denial of their traditional occupations of fishing and farming.

Oil is said to have been stolen when non-oil producing states determine what percentage must go to the oil producing states by way of derivation. When a paltry 13 percent of that is still made an issue by those who contribute little or nothing to the general pool.

Oil is said to have been stolen, when mining of countless minerals is condoned by those who should bring proceeds to the table for general use, and instead look the other way either for fear of the influential few behind the business or just to be seen to be fair to them, while all set their sights on crude oil from the Niger Delta.

Oil is said to have been stolen when the East-West road, the key gate-way that links the South-South geo-political zone to the rest of the nation, is left in a bad state for years at high risk to vehicular movement, even when Nigeria’s capital city with its mega roads was built from proceeds from the same oil from the Niger Delta.

Oil is said to have been stolen when the oil bearing states are denied control of their God-given resources, while in the days of the great groundnut pyramids, the opposite was true. It is even a bigger example of armed robbery when such beneficiaries, turn-around to say, one form is agriculture and the other, natural-gift to the entire nation.

But perhaps the biggest example of oil thieves are the NNPC and other multi-national oil firms who not only determine their own jumbo salaries, engage carpenters and brick-layers as expatriates and also under- report their daily production to a very gullible Nigerian State. Even worse is the huge surveillance contracts they award annually, ostensibly to check oil theft only to cry-wolf daily of the same problem and what Nigeria loses to that illicit trade.

Unfortunately, all these facts are known to most uniformed men regularly posted to high flash-points to prevent oil theft and so cannot live like non-Romans in Rome.

Such is the vicious cycle the Federal Government under President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to halt. And Nigerians expect government to do just that, afterall, it was part of the problems Jonathan elected to solve when he put self forward to become President.

My Agony is that those daily being arrested, and paraded as oil thieves, are the ordinary petty thieves of the illicit trade while those of the armed robber grade still determine whose right it was, is, and ever shall be, to steal the crude oil from the Niger Delta.

Isn’t there a way to directly involve the oil bearing Communities and States in the protection of oil facilities rather than letting NNPC and multi-national oil firms award surveillance contracts to themselves, using cronies who themselves become the legal thieves?

Or must we continue to do the familiar: recycle of security operatives to secure oil production sites for each to have a bite of the pie?

In a country where, a 17-year old teenager spends eight months in jail for wandering while a multi-millionaire drug baron bags 10 years in jail but serves his prison term in the comfort of his home, it will require more than cries of huge losses and repeated warnings to security personnel to check oil theft. The cleansing must start with the top.

This is because, there are so many things flawless oratory in high places can cover-up, corruption, like pregnancy is not one of them. It requires the top-down approach not the bottom-up, this time.

President Jonathan And Diezani Alison