Oil theft: Military, NNPC vow to investigate illegal pipeline connections, punish culprits

The Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari have vowed to investigate the illegal insertions at the Trans-Escravos pipeline in the Yokiri area of Delta State.

The duo made the promise after visiting the scene of the insertions on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, General Irabor vowed to launch a full-scale investigation into the illegal activities.

“This is an eye-opener and I’m glad that I’ve come here,” the General said. “This is really very sad and we are going to get to the root of it all. There will be an investigation that will go through the entire length of the chain to establish who did this and how long it has been, among several other issues.”

Kyari, on his part, said anyone who is culpable, even among industry practitioners, will be brought to book.

“The attachment on our Trans-Escravos line, that illegal connection, is professionally done,” he said. “And the end result is they connected this to an inactive test line which should never carry crude under normal circumstances. And we have seen that this line flows all the way, parallel to the other two active lines, into the Afremo platform. And we think this is a good revelation.

“Anyone involved in this process, whether from the community members, our community contractors, government security agencies, workers of the oil companies, including NNPC and Shell, anyone that is involved with this will be dealt with by the law.”