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Nigerian Navy clears air on statement misrepresenting quantity of stolen oil

Chuks Oyema-Aziken

The Nigerian Navy have given a clearer version of what transpired when it appeared before the Senate Committee on Economic and Financial Crimes probing oil theft in the country.

Recall that a publication in a National Daily of 4 December 2022 with the heading, ‘NNPC Not Sincere about Oil Theft, Exaggerating Figures-Navy’, raised a lot of eyebrows and didn’t go down well with the Navy due to its incongruity.

The Navy Naval Headquarters in a statement Monday said that “the statement was purportedly made at an interactive hearing before the Senate Committee on Economic and Financial Crimes during which the relevant agencies implementing the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022 briefed the Committee at the National Assembl.”

“The report indicated that the Chairman of the committee, demanded explanations on why the country continued to experience cases of oil theft if the waterways were secured. The distinguished Senator had queried that, “the oil theft issue has been a very worrisome one to every Nigerian and more importantly, it has negatively impacted our economy. How come the Navy hasn’t been able to solve the issue of oil theft and if the Navy is claiming that the waterways are secured, why are there still cases of oil theft?” Equally, it was mentioned that another Senator noted that at an oversight function, the NNPCL said crude pipelines were being tapped from the pressure pipe under sea and crude oil was usually transferred from there into vessels, and this had been happening for nine years. He reportedly asked, “Is the Navy aware or not of the taping going on under the sea?”

The questions were all responded to and in the course of responding, it was explained that the challenge is due to the criminal activity inshore by the illegal local refiners in tapping into the export lines many of which have not been in operation since early this year, 2022 resulting in opportunity lost. Also, the major terminals have not been able to process crude for export since around February/March and this inability to process as export is reported as stolen oil since it is practically impossible to steal and move 100,000 barrels per day out of the creeks. The Navy representative at the Senate hearing repeatedly mentioned that the Navy is not indicting the NNPCL in any way and has been working with the National Oil Giant to curb the menace of crude oil theft since the 1 April 2022 when Operation DAKATAR DA BARAWO (OPDDB) was launched in Onne, Rivers State as a mutual effort and synergy between the Navy and NNPCL to address issues of crude oil theft, rampant illegal artisan refineries and illegal oil bunkering amongst other criminalities in the creeks.”

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