ZIK GBEMRE SPEAKS ON THE REPORTED DISCOVERY OF ILLEGAL 4KM PIPELINE BY THE NNPC ON CRUDE OIL AND CONDENSATE THEFT FOR 9 YEARS

…A WELL CALCULATED SCAM BY THE NNPC/RELEVANT AUTHORITIES TO COVER-UP.

With reports that in 2017, ten (10) suspected oil thieves on board MT TECNE Vessel were arrested by the Nigerian Navy while they were siphoning crude oil from the same area into the vessel from the Afremo A platform, how come the NNPC is just announcing the supposed discovery of the said illegal 4km pipeline?…

The said reported incident is a well calculated scam, ‘cock and bull story’ engineered and orchestrated by the NNPC and their ex-militant contractor(s) to justify their renewed inflated surveillance contract…

All of this is a ‘hidden plan/agenda’ by some highly placed people in government to raise money for their political campaign ambitions…

With regard to reports of a supposed discovery of a 4km long illegal crude oil pipeline that connects to the Forcados Terminal area from the high sea and has been used for nine years without interruption by illegal bunkerers, let it be known to all well-meaning Nigerians that the said reported incident is a well calculated scam, ‘cock and bull story’ engineered and orchestrated by NNPC and their ex-militant contractor(s) to justify their renewed inflated surveillance contract. Everything about the said incident was their ‘hidden plan/agenda’ meant to deceive the public and to show to the world that their ex-militant contractor(s) are working to supposedly protect trunklines and oil facilities that were vandalized and used for illegal bunkering for years by the same people. What a country? What a shame to the NNPC!

According to the Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari, the 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) connection from the Forcados export terminal, which typically exports about 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, into the sea, and said to be worth 7million dollars per day, was discovered during a crackdown on oil theft in the previous six weeks. He added: “In the course of the clampdown within the last six weeks, 395 illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1,561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized.

“The most striking of all, is the four-kilometre illegal oil connection pipeline from Forcados Terminal area into the sea which had been in operation undetected for nine solid years”. Kyari also said that while thieves often tap land-based pipelines to siphon oil undetected, an illegal line in the ocean is highly unusual and suggests a more sophisticated theft operation.

Let us recall that few months back, the Federal Government had renewed a multi-million-dollar pipeline Surveillance Contract to a former militant leader and Commander of the defunct Movement for Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, which many stakeholders had faulted, and demanded that the said decision be reversed. While the Federal Government of Nigeria/NNPC/NAPIMS/NDPC, should recognize well-meaning grassroots Surveillance stakeholders that has been fighting oil theft and exposing illegal bunkering activities in Supervisory Role of Surveillance of Oil/Gas facilities in the Niger-Delta.

Apparently, as result of the demand and outcry by some stakeholders and other well-meaning Nigerians, the NNPC and its ex-militant contractor(s) are coming with this ‘hidden plan/agenda’ to justify the said multi-million-dollar pipeline Surveillance Contract awarded to Tompolo. Now we have several videos online by supporters of Tompolo appreciating him over the supposed discovery of the said 4km illegal pipeline used to steal crude oil for 9 years.

The truth of the matter is that this supposed discovery by the NNPC authorities is a sham, which should be connected to the industry players, including the Operators, NNPC, DPR, Security operatives and the host community locals concerned. There are a lot of questions hovering around this incident that are begging for answers. For one, the construction of such illegal trunkline cannot be said to be hidden since it is connected to the sea where bigger vessels load this illegal crude oil. Are they saying we no longer have the activities of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) formerly known as the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), National Petroleum Investment Services (NAPIMS), as regulators supervising and overseeing the shipping of these crude oil out of the country? What about the Nigerian Navy who are doing the policing of the Nigerian sea boarders which include that of Forcados areas?

There is also the issue of reports which indicates that a case of an illegal pipeline routed into the sea has been reported as far back as 2017. There are documentary evidences released by Channels TV, which unearthed Afremo A Platform, owned by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), a local subsidiary of Shell, as the point from which crude oil is stolen from the country. The said Afremo A Platform is located in the Forcados (Estuary and Afremo) Offshore Oil Field. The Forcados Offshore Oil Field is operated by the Shell (SPDC), and its export terminal typically exports around 250,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

The said report noted that in 2017, ten (10) suspected oil thieves on board MT TECNE Vessel were arrested by the Nigerian Navy while they were siphoning crude oil into the vessel from the Afremo A platform. The suspects were one Nigerian, two Pakistanis, three Ghanaians, one Indonesian, one Beninois and two Ukrainians. These suspects were eventually handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution.

Revealing their modus operandi, it was said that the vessel used in siphoning crude oil from the Afremo A Platform goes into the high sea during the day, and come late in the night to connect to the jacket platform that siphon crude oil. That same year, the suspects were arraigned in court and remanded in a prison in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by a Federal High Court Presided over by Justice J. K. Omotosho.

However, shockingly, they were given the option of N2 million fine. Meanwhile, the company involved in the crime: Astral Shipping Corporation SA, was wound up by the court while the vessel carrying the offensive crude oil: MT TECNE, also known as MT STAR (Vessel) was forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

With all of this, how come the NNPC is just announcing the supposed discovery of the said 4km pipeline? Why are they announcing the discovery as though it was made yesterday? Who are the thieves? What happened to the suspects arrested? What about the option of fine? Who are their sponsors? Is the said Afremo A Platform being used to siphon crude oil again in recent times?

There are indeed a lot of questions that demand answers. Now that it has been supposedly seen, who are the people supervising the major trunklines that is connected to the ones being used to siphon the crude oil? Why should we believe the NNPC authorities, that this has been going on for Nine years? How come is it now that the said multi-million-dollar Surveillance Contract was awarded to Tompolo that the NNPC authorities are coming out to tell Nigerians about a supposed crude oil theft discovery?

Be that as it may, there should not be any praise-singing yet, until all those involved are identified, arrested and prosecuted appropriately. Who are the operators of that major trunkline that is connected to the said illegal trunkline? The oil and gas Operators, the authorities of the NNPC, NUPRC, NAPIMS, ex-militant/Tompolo, security operatives of the Nigerian Navy, as well as the Locals of the said areas, should not claim ignorance of this crude oil theft that has been going for years.

Who are the buyers of the stolen crude oil? Who are those that own the vessels they use? Attached with this write up is a picture of how a 3 million Tanker Vessel looks like. At 250k bpd, it will take 12 days to load it full with crude oil. At $100/barrel, it will transport $300m worth of crude per trip. At official rate of N420/$, it’s worth N125bn and it was supposedly unnoticed for 9 good years. At the end of the day, President Muhammadu Buhari who is the petroleum minister by proxy, and his APC led Government, will tell Nigerians that they were not aware.

Let me reiterate what I still believe is the case here, and that is the fact that this trunkline is owned by the NNPC and their Operators, which they have been using to steal crude oil for years. The supposed discovery of this illegal trunkline is only made public to justify their inflated surveillance contract to the ex-militant, Tompolo. It is all a cover-up deal by NNPC/NAPIMS to justify the award of the said inflated Surveillance Contract awarded to ex-militants in the Niger-Delta.

We had noted that the Federal Government and the NNPC should be reminded that it was the criminal and militancy activities of Tompolo and his MEND group which created the level of insecurity, illegal bunkering, illegal refineries and bursting of oil/gas pipes/oil theft in Delta State and the entire Niger Delta region in the first place. Why then will the Federal Government and the NNPC Group now think that they can award such a person to supposedly protect the Niger Delta area from oil theft? How is that possible? When has the ex-militants become ‘nationalists’ in Nigeria? Do they think they can fool every Nigerian?

All of this oil theft is known by the NNPC and their top executive management. No one is just discovering any ‘damaged nonsense’ of a supposed illegal trunkline. In OML 34 area for instance, which is being operated by ND Western/NPDC AMT, it took me and the Security Manager in OML 34, sleepless nights to end the large-scale illegal bunkering activities in the areas with over one thousand illegal refineries destroyed in Ughevwughe and Otor-Edo communities in Ughelli South LGA of Delta State. The question is, why did the GMD NNPC not trumpet this recorded success in the media?

I repeat, the reported discovery is a scam that is well-orchestrated by the NNPC and their new surveillance contractors/ ex-militants, who were the same people that had vandalized the trunklines in the creeks, which they have all been using for their illegal bunkering of crude oil/condensate.

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