By Braeyi Ekiye
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, as well as the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and other critical stakeholders in the Nigerian project recently called for the setting up of a Special Investigative Panel on oil theft and losses.
The call was necessitated by the humongous oil theft that has gone unchecked for as long as oil and gas exploration and exploitation began in Nigeria, some 66 years ago. But these thefts at various oil installation locations across the oil producing areas of the Niger Delta became increasingly unbearable in August 2022, the worst month in oil theft record this year, when a foreign vessel capable of lifting over two million barrels of crude oil escaped from Nigerian territorial waters but was arrested by Equatorial Guinean Maritime security forces.
NEITI has bemoaned Nigeria’s loss of 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at $46.16 billion or N16.25 trillion in 12 years from 2009 to 2020. The losses, as disclosed by NEITI, were reportedly from theft and sabotage, based on information and data provided by an average of eight companies covered by the NEITI processes over the years.
NEITI in a statement said a “breakdown of the losses shows that in 2009 when the agency commenced reporting of crude oil theft, Nigeria lost 69.49 million barrels valued at $4.31 billion. The figures for 2010, 2011 and 2012 revealed that 28.31 million, 38.61 million and 51.58 million barrels, $4.39 billion and $5.82 billion were lost respectively”.
The list of combined losses to crude oil thefts from 2013 to 2015 disclosed by NEITI was put at 67.29 million barrels valued at $5.57 billion. In 2016, NEITI report indicated that the recorded highest losses as 101.05 million barrels, valued at N4.42 billion. Between 2017 and 2020, NEITI report indicated losses of 36.46 million barrels ($1.99 billion) in 2017; 53.28 million barrels ($3.837 billion) in 2018; 42.248 million barrels ($2.772 billion) in 2019; and 53.056 million barrels ($2.21 billion) in 2020. The combined value of these crude oil thefts, as reported by NEITI was put at 619.7 million barrels, amounting to $46.16 billion, over a 12-year period.
From NEITI’s report and the lackadaisical attitude of petroleum resources managers and the array of security agencies available to secure our oil facilities from oil thieves and illegal bunkeers, one is not enthused at the recent Federal Government’s panel set up to investigate this anomaly in our nation’s oil industry, the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy. To some, the panel is coming too late in the day.
Inaugurating the 11–member Special Panel headed by the Interim Administrator, Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, Major General Barry Ndiomu; the National Security Adviser, NSA, Major-General Babangida Monguno, stated the obvious that Nigeria was facing monumental loss of revenue that ought to have accrued from the sale of crude oil, “being the main source of its foreign exchange earnings”.
He said the escalation of acts of vandalism and theft of crude oil led to significant decline in production, with associated impact on revenue, adding that these losses were orchestrated by unscrupulous elements in our society. Monguno then hit the nail on the head: “With the scale of the oil theft and losses and alleged complicity of regulatory agencies/officials and security personnel as well as the involvement of international collaborators, the “enterprise” is deeply entrenched and would be extremely difficult to exterminate without very stern and decisive action by government”.
This and many more compelling reasons are why government has “now” deemed it fit to set up a special investigative panel on oil theft to investigate all aspects of crude oil theft, identify the culprits and submit its reports for necessary action. Terms of reference of the Panel are:
(a) To investigate oil theft/losses in all its ramifications and propose wide ranging array of implementable recommendations to enable the Buhari administration take decisive actions to end the criminal act. (b) To ascertain the circumstances surrounding the illegal insertion into Trans-Escravos Pipeline, TEP, around Yokri area in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State. (c) To established the ramifications of crude oil theft/losses in Nigeria; ascertain the causative factors, immediate and remote, of crude oil theft/losses in the country and ascertain the extent of crude oil theft/losses in the country. (d) With the widest possible amplitude, identify persons/entities whether public, private or foreign, involved in the criminal enterprise and establish the level of identified persons/entities in the enterprise.
More importantly, (e) the panel is also to examine the specific roles of regulatory agencies, security agencies, tiers/arms of government and International Oil Companies, IOCs, in aiding and abetting criminal enterprise. (f) To also assess the efficacy of security architecture/arrangement in tackling crude oil theft/losses and associated petroleum products and recommend appropriate commensurate and sufficiently, deterrent sanctions on all those culpable. (g) To recommend steps/procedures/processes to be taken by government to eliminate the enterprise in the industry to prevent future occurrence; (h) and make any other recommendations on any other issue incidental to the terms of reference. The General Ndiomu Panel is expected to commence assignment immediately, and charged to conclude as well as submit its report on or before February 21, 2023.
Going by the Panel’s terms of reference, one can guess the seriousness Buhari government attaches to this crime of oil theft which amounts to economic sabotage and national security breach. That the Panel is headed by a retired General in the Armed Forces, known for his penchant to details and commitment to our shared values of probity and accountability, and laced with men of proven competence in their various areas of specialisation as members, gives hope to the seriousness of government in healing this malignant sore on Nigeria’s oil industry and by implication, its fast dwindled economic and financial receipts in recent tunes.
But then, as the Vanguard newspaper Editorial at page 18 of Tuesday, December 13, 2022 expressed areas of confidence and fears in the probe, producing meaningful result, coming with only six months to the expiration of Buhari’s administration, the Federal Government should prove that it means real business, this time around, in fishing out these oil robbers and bring them to book with dispatch.
Indeed, Nigerians have sniffed, seen the art of magical works of probes for far too long, and are bored, and suspect of such probes producing tangible results. They have witnessed televised probes with mind-blowing revelations, and lately the Marathon NDDC Forensic probes with nothing to show for their investments, both in human, material and financial resources.
The onus now lies on the Federal Government with its anti-corruption stance, to act swiftly after the submission of the General Ndiomu findings. This is, indeed, a test case on this administration’s commitment to decisively fight economic and financial crimes in the country. Nigerians and the International community are watching closely the proceeds of the probe itself, its outcome and its implementation by Government.
*Ekiye, Publisher, EnviromentWatch, wrote from Yenagoa via: icelimited2018@gmail.com
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