Between March 16th and 22nd, 2024, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL) recorded approximately 136 occurrences of crude oil theft.
This was said during the weekly show Energy and You, which aired on NTA and covered various sorts of crude oil theft.
The report identified 37 instances of unauthorised connections, 26 instances of pipeline tampering, 29 illegal refineries, 13 violations of vessel Automatic Identification Systems (AIS), a single oil spill incident, and other activities across multiple sites in the Niger Delta region.
Locations for crude oil theft
Tantita Security Services disclosed the events, which largely occurred in Rivers State. According to reports, 37 unlawful connections were found and disconnected in the states of Rivers, Bayelsa, and Abia.
Additionally, 29 illegal refining operations were discovered in various locations of the Niger Delta, with substantial incidents reported in the states of Abia, Imo, and Rivers.
In Bayelsa state, real-time footage from a drone camera captured a man illegally collecting crude from an unauthorised oil pit, resulting in oil leaks.
Furthermore, in the states of Rivers and Delta, around 13 vessels were flagged for AIS noncompliance, and wooden boats carrying illegally obtained crude oil were captured. Similarly, roughly 12 cars used to transport stolen crude oil were captured in Rivers, Akwa-Ibom, Delta, and Abia states.
A breakdown of occurrences shows that the Central Niger Delta had 70 incidents, the deep blue water zones had 13, and the Eastern and Western Niger Deltas had 38 and 15 incidents, respectively.
Crude oil theft in Nigeria.
Nigeria is facing substantial issues from crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, resulting in lower state revenues, environmental damage, and a drop in onshore investments by International Oil Companies (IOCs). This issue has reduced daily oil production from 2 million to almost 1.5 million barrels.
During a tour to oil-producing towns in the Niger Delta, the President’s National Security Adviser (NSA) disclosed that theft costs Nigeria over 400,000 barrels of crude oil every day.