Group Moves To Check Oil Theft

A group known as the Association of Surface Tank Oil and Gas Retailers (ASTOGRN) says it will work with other stakeholders to fight the menace of oil theft in the Niger Delta.
Chairperson of the group in Rivers State, Comrade Patience Uche, told The Tide in an interview in Port Harcourt at the weekend that the body had inaugurated a special committee to work with other stakeholders to address issues of oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
She said statistics revealed that oil bunkering activities and pipeline vandalisation in the Niger Delta costs the Federal Government about N5.9bn annually.
Apart from the huge lost in revenue, she said oil bunkering and pipeline vandalisation has also resulted in the colossal lost of lives as most of the vandals were always consumed in pipeline explosions during the bunkering exercises.
Comrade Uche decried the increasing involvement of youths in illegal bunkering activities and advocated for a more proactive and corrective measure to bring lasting solution to the vice.
According to her, part of the solution is the building of modular refineries in the Niger Delta and developing the capacities of youths in the region to be actively involved in the oil and gas industry; “most of the youths who get involved in illegal  oil bunkering and lost their lives in the process could have played a more creative and productive role in the oil and gas industry if they were functionally trained.
“The Federal Government should be serious about the establishment of modular refineries and the training of youths to participate in the process,” this will go a long way to tackle the challenges of illegal bunkering in the Niger Delta”, she said.
Uche said the major drive of the association was to make oil and gas bussines rural based, “to improve the socio economic and general living conditions of its members”.
She said the association would achieve the targets by encouraging its members to have licences from the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to be actively involved in the oil and gas bussines. This, according to her, will also reduce dependence of petroleum supplies from foreign marketers, kill the spirit of bunkering as well as increase the Federal Government revenue on Surface  Tank retail business in Nigeria.

Taneh Beemene