Oil Theft: NNPCL Sounds Alarm on Involvement of Communities, Religious Groups and Security Agencies

Group Chief Executive of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has again sounded the alarm over the involvement of communities and religious groups in the theft of petroleum products in the country.< /p>

Mr. Kyari said this during the weekly ministerial briefing organized by the Presidential Media Team led by Femi Adesina, Special Advisor to the President for Media and Publicity, Tuesday in Abuja.

According to him, churches, mosques, security agencies as well as the communities crossed by the pipelines have been implicated in the vandalism of the pipelines and the theft of petroleum products.

He said that so far, the NNPC, in collaboration with security agencies, had destroyed 959 metal tanks for storage purposes, 737 ovens, 452 dug pits, 355 cooking pots and 179 wooden boats between April and August of this year. .

He added that security officials also recovered 207 pumping machines, 12 welding machines, two generators and two filling machines.

Mr. Kyari said 11 vessels, 30 speedboats, 37 trucks and cars were seized, while 122 suspects were arrested in connection with various cases of theft of petroleum products.

He said: "As you may also be aware, due to the very unfortunate acts of vandalism along our main pipelines from Atlas Cove to Ibadan, and all others connecting the 37 depots that we have across the country.

"You know, none of them can take delivery of products today.

"And the reason is very simple. For some of the lines, for example, from Warri in Benin, we have not operated this line for 15 years. Every molecule of product that we put in is lost.

"And of course you remember the tragic fire very close to Warri, near Sapele which killed so many people.

"So we had to shut it down and as we speak, the level of losses we have on our product pipeline, and I'm sure you may have seen it and I'll invite you to the good time so we can take a look at it together.”

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He also recalled the fire that occurred in the Lagos area, adding, "In one of our pipelines, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individual houses.

"And not only that, and in all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, you know, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found were actually in churches and mosques.

“That means everyone is involved. know it.

"That everyone includes members of the community, members of the religious leadership and also and most likely government officials of all kinds, including security agency personnel.

“They are everywhere. And I have seen this even in the Niger Delta. There is no way to deliver volume and lose up to 30% and you will continue to put these products in this line ."

Mr. Kyari, however, revealed that the NNPCL recovered 35.8 million liters of stolen crude oil, 22 million liters of diesel, 0.15 million liters of gasoline and 0.76 million liters of kerosene.

(NAN)

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