An oil surveillance operation has smashed a huge illegal bunkering camp in Bayelsa, Niger Delta, with certain entities, including one of the pipelines security subcontractors to Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company (AEEPCO), an indigenous oil exploration company, fingered in the incident.
Identity cards found on the sites by one of the major pipeline surveillance firms in the Niger Delta, recently contracted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) belonged to the oil pipeline subcontractors who were hired to watch over some of the assets, it was learnt.
Specifically, the operation took place during the early hours of Sunday, June 23, when the surveillance security operatives conducted patrols in the Okoroba axis of the Nembe local government area of the state. Their mission led them towards the Elemuama area.
When the operatives moved to dismantle the illegal operation site, sources with knowledge of the incident said they uncovered startling evidence implicating one of the subcontractors in massive oil theft in the area.
Aiteo, arguably the country’s biggest exploration and production company is owned by business magnate, Benedict Peters.
The identity cards of the employees of the surveillance firm discovered on-site and other incriminating evidence have now raised several questions about the complicity of the company and its owner’s involvement in illicit oil bunkering activities in the region.
Also revealed during the raid were two additional unauthorised bunkering camps nearby, wherein the surveillance team seized and subsequently destroyed two large boats loaded with crude oil and a fibre boat.
They were eventually set ablaze to prevent further illicit activities since the boats could carry large quantities of oil, indicating the scale of the operation.
The coordinates of the seized boats were: N 4°35’40.67814, E 6°27’8.71992, N 4°33’8″ E 6°28, 0 while those of the illegal bunkering camps were: 4°35’39.70776, N 6°27’5.30052, E 4°35’38.97882, N 6°27’7.04682.
Also fingered was one Livingston whose operations spread across Bayelsa State, specifically in the creeks of Nembe—Brass. He is said to own several illegal bunkering camps and controls a vast transportation network that transports illegal refined petroleum products to various parts of the state.
But Livingston, though a surveillance subcontractor is also said to be the coordinator of all illegal bunkering groups that that had been complicit in vandalising the facilities of the company.
A source stated that the suspects had been treated with kid gloves for a long time and that if the culprits are not arrested and prosecuted to serve as a deterrent to others, illegal bunkering may continue in the area.
Oil theft remains a major challenge in the Nigerian oil and gas sector. In October last year, the Nigerian Senate revealed that the country lost N2.3 trillion to crude oil theft during the year, with pipeline vandalism and oil bunkering already precipitating a severe socio-economic crisis in Nigeria.
At several forums the Nigerian authority have said that Nigeria loses as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil to theft and pipeline vandalism in the Niger Delta.
In the past week, the NNPC reported a staggering 400 incidents of crude oil theft, with the bulk of them occurring in the Western region of Rivers and Bayelsa states, with 265 cases.
Some of the worst-hit oil companies have recently begun the transportation of their crude through significant arteries like the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL). But the disruptions not only lead to production downtime and loss of crude oil, but result in additional expenses in facility repairs.