The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has announced that 188 cases of oil theft were reported in the last week.
According to the state-owned electricity provider, the accidents occurred between August 24 and August 30.
In a graphic 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 discovered that 89 illegal refineries were located and decommissioned in a single week.
According to the NNPC, many unlawful connections were discovered this week in Bayelsa, Abia, and Rivers states. Illegal refineries have also been demolished in Abia and Rivers states.
On land, trucks and cars transporting stolen crude oil were reportedly recovered in Delta State.
Wooden boats transporting stolen crude oil were also intercepted in Rivers, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom states.
It was stated that 31 alleged oil thieves were apprehended last week and turned over to government security authorities for further investigation.
While lamenting the spate of oil theft in the Niger Delta region, NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari, contended that based on the volume of oil stolen daily and the arrogance with which the perpetrators operate, crude oil theft was the most massive and virulent economic crime in Nigeria, requiring 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 out of 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 Kyari, 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.
