Whereas it has been generally acknowledged that some powerful, very powerful Nigerians are behind the crude oil theft; Whereas government itself has not come out to provide the exact volume of crude exported and produced per day in its strictest sense; Whereas the actual number of barrels lost per day to oil thieves hover between 400,000 and 600,000; Whereas, whereas and whereas…… Now, therefore, it should be admitted that either a paradigm of recklessness or irresponsibility or both has taken over in Nigeria. N365billion loss! Strange but true!

After three weeks of investigative work, Sunday Vanguard discovered that the only authority that can stop crude oil theft in Nigeria is the authority of anti-corruption. The discoveries went as far up to link friends of those in very senior positions in government and in the IOCs. Firstly, a government that is at pains to give an accurate figure regarding export volume can never be said to be sincere about stopping crude oil theft.

At best, what that tells the oil thieves is that a commodity the volume of which cannot be certified and verified, ab initio, would be difficult to calculate in terms of losses; and at worst create a free-for-all environment for the sustenance of the theft.

The regular stunts about burning and destroying illegal crude refineries are no more than submissions to tokenistic dramatization of a sense of duty because the real crude oil thieves continue to thrive with the active connivance of those making the hundreds of millions from the crime.

Does this administration know that there could be a correlation between a government collapse and crude theft because with such losses, it would find it difficult to run its business and the people could in turn rise against it?
Yet, had the theft been an activity being carried out in states controlled by the opposition, the hired guns who are quick to read-meanings, no matter how warped into anything, would have insisted that opposition parties want to sabotage government.

[size=14pt]Frigate in Gulf of Guinea Acting as 'Fourth French Base in Africa'[/size]

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In the dark night, dozens of wells spit out orange flames. It is the only visible light on the black-ink sea in this part of the Gulf of Guinea, south of Nigeria, which is one of the largest offshore oilfields in the world.  Darkness also reigns supreme onboard Latouche-Treville.  The French frigate is patrolling in silence.  For this night of June, the battleship has set itself a 200 square kilometers area of operations off Port Harcourt [city in Nigeria].  The area is bristling with traps: abandoned drilling sites, secondary and main platforms connected by oil pipelines as a cobweb stretching over thousands of kilometers.  The wells of the French oil group Total look like large coins on the national Navy's maps.

Latouche-Treville has "some informal contacts" with the French companies in the area, but the ship wants to sail without reporting: it remains deaf to the calls of foreigners who ask her to identify herself.  "Every man for himself is the rule here," the officer of the deck said.  The oil platforms violate international waters laws, by establishing around themselves a security perimeter protected by private companies of 20 Km, instead of the authorized 500 meters.  "Guards are very nervous, there is great insecurity," the officer added.

In these hot waters, where the wealth of Africa travels through, ghosts wander: armored speedboats of private armies circulate with their lights off; pirate vessels with destroyed identification systems; illegal fishermen, traffickers in gas, weapons, drugs, and human beings.  Off West Africa, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has counted 966 boats targeted in 2012, and 70 attacks have taken place since the beginning of 2013 in the Gulf.

The latest attack that affected the French was on 13 June.  Oil tanker MT Adour was attacked off Togo, before being taken into Nigerian waters. The assailants, some 10 men armed with machine guns, were unable to siphon dry the tanks, which were empty.  So, they turned to the engine fuel, but they also took the captain hostage, who was immediately released on ground, and his second in command, who was released on Tuesday 18 [June] in Nigeria, while the Latouche-Treville escorted the tanker.

The Gulf of Guinea is one of the priorities for the French defense, which has deployed there a surveillance mission called "Corymbe."  For the first time, since the beginning of April a top level frigate is stationed there. Corymbe was launched in 1990 and was conceived in order to occasionally support ground operations.  But since 1996, the Navy has been constantly patrolling this area, where there is growing insecurity, with the support of an Atlantique 2 aircraft based in Dakar.

Though the matter is not presented thus, this ship constitutes the fourth French base in Africa, along with the ones in Dakar, Libreville, and Djibouti.  France has major interests in the area.  There are 1,500 businesses and 90,000 expats in the Sub-Saharan West, the majority in the cities on the Gulf of Guinea, said Mathieu Le Hunsec, author of a book on the national navy in Africa.  From here comes one quarter of the national oil supply.  The ports of the region are also points of support for intervening in the Sahel.  From Cotonou [Benin capital] departs the uranium extracted by Areva [French nuclear energy company] in Niger. The logistics for the army in the Central African Republic go through Douala. The army supports its operations in Mali from Dakar.

Intelligence, military cooperation with neighboring countries: the mission covers a very large seafront, from Senegal to Congo.  "It is a matter of keeping things at a level of violence that is more or less under control, not letting a situation in the region degenerate without us being aware of it," said Captain Xavier de Vericourt.  The Corymbe ship will be the first one able to evacuate expats in the event of a crisis.

The Latouche-Treville carries the equipment of a commando group that could be released at sea and then return to it.  The electoral deadlines in the region are a barometer for the army staff.  Currently, Nigeria's and Cameroon's weaknesses are being closely watched. 

Piracy, which extends toward the Cote d'Ivoire, is becoming more violent.  Its nature is changing, and is shifting from pure economic depredation to hostage-taking.  Proof of this was the attack that targeted Arethuse, a French offshore service boat of the Bourbon company, in the night between 4-5 June. "The pirates were looking for expats," said the captain of the Latouche-Treville.  Two 20-meter speedboats, a dozen armed men "in uniform," who were very organized.  The expats had the time to lock themselves up inside a strong room.  Some Nigerian sailors who did not have the time of barricading themselves were eventually left free.  After leaving empty-handed, the assailants attacked on route two other boats, the C-Viking and the Miss-Kayla. The frigate found the two pirate boats 5 km away, adrift together, with all their lights off.  Their names were carefully recorded.

A "voluntary naval control" has been introduced in the Gulf of Guinea, managed by the Navy from Brest: the ship of the Corymbe operation contacts all the ships flying a French flag, or the ships "of interest" that make their presence known.  The militarization of the area seems inevitable.  "If the sea is not controlled, if no presence is assured, one will see people sneaking in," the captain of the Latouche-Treville noted.

Since 2006, the US defense has been developing an aide project for local navies within the framework of the Africa Partnership Station program.  The United States gives patrol boats to all the countries in the region.  France caries out similar [as published] training operations, in particular in Equatorial Guinea, where it has opened a naval school.  With the help of other partners -- Israel, China, Russia ?? the countries of the Gulf of Guinea are trying to set up their own national navy .

The awareness of such a need is a recent matter.  In February 2009, the Equatorial Guinea presidential palace in Malabo, the capital on Bioko Island, which is off Cameroon, was attacked from the sea. Attacks motivated by financial gain have targeted in the same manner banks in Douala (Cameroon) and supermarkets in Port-Gentil (Gabon). Pirates, mafia groups and rebel political groups are intertwined.

In March 2010, a Total site was attacked for the first time by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.  "Militias appear and disappear, but they are always operating," said Captain Joel Manga, who boarded the Latouche-Treville on 9 June with officers from Cameroon for an exercitation onboard.  "Mainly, we have a problem with illegal fishery in territorial waters," he noted, "but we also concentrate our efforts north, in order to prevent the threats coming from Nigeria, including Boko Haram, from spreading."

A regional military station command has been set up in Douala, where the captain of the Boulingui vessel, a Gabonese officer, hailed the first "positive results" off Cameroun.  "The sea is no longer empty, but we only have three ships, and we need to cast our nets wider.  Maritime cooperation will be on the agenda of the summit of Central and Western Africa's heads of state in Yaounde, on 24 and 25 June.

Senegal, Liberia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Conakry, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana. . . The Latouche-Treville has made some 15 stops in four months of mission.  They serve as a test. If the program is fulfilled, if the sailors work well together, it means that the country is holding firm.

REHOZIBAH: Whomsoever that wave off this report as the handiwork of the opposition is CURSED

We have been saying it that GEJ is a money-miss road president who knows the people that are bleeding this country to death

If you say this to bigotted folk from the delta,they will say 'na our oyel money'

If you blame him for his lame-duck approach to security,some people will say 'na lie'

Jonathan is a curse upon this country....the rate at which people go after what is known as RACKET product in the oil and gas industry will make anybody weep for this country

Those who kept supporting him from a vague and victimised mindset of a Minority or SSoutherner are the gullible lot

Obiagelli:
i swear if this guy gets the 2015 seat, i am done with this country, if a government that gets an average of 300 billion monthly for the past 4yrs from the RMAFC or what is it called has railway(24 billion ), 4/5 airports ( remodelled) and 6 high ways ( refurbished ) to show for it.

[size=14pt]Who is stealing Nigeria’s crude Oil?[/size]

Posted on Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

By Ikechukwu Amaechi 

Nigeria is in dire straits. Buffeted from all sides by all manners of miscreants, these are also desperate times for law-abiding citizens.  Kidnappers are on the prowl and armed robbers now put their would-be victims on notice weeks before they strike, confident that they will execute their nefarious act without much of a challenge.  Terrorists are having a field day, wreaking havoc on innocent citizens and paedophiles are having a ball, devouring children still wearing diapers.

And wait for it. Oil thieves and pipeline vandals are making managers of our economy to sweat. Last week, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala alerted the nation that the Federal Government was experiencing shortfalls in funds required to implement the 2013 budget.

Nigeria was losing, she claimed, 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day to oil theft and vandalism of oil and gas installations.

To the uninformed, this piece of information may not be alarming enough.  But when the fact that oil and gas industry accounts for around two-thirds of government revenue and more than 90 percent of the country’s export earnings, the grim situation is better appreciated.

Again, when the fact that as at January last year, oil theft stood at only 150,000bpd a day, roughly seven percent of the country’s total output, is considered, then the reality will dawn much more forcefully on us that crude oil theft has become a most lucrative business, growing over 120 per cent in one year.

In February last year, Ian Craig, Africa’s Vice President for the Anglo-Dutch giant, Shell Exploration and Production, said that while militant attacks on oil installations in the Niger Delta had slowed, oil theft had surged.

“The greatest challenge is the massive organised oil theft business and the criminality and corruption which it fosters,” Craig told an annual oil conference of industry players and government.

The stolen oil fuels a lucrative black market in Nigeria as well as in neighbouring countries.

This is bad enough.  But worse still is the fact that Nigeria, my country, a sovereign state, is seemingly helpless, looking up to the international community to solve its security challenges.

President Goodluck Jonathan, we are told, has appealed to European leaders to help stop the theft of crude oil in his country by ensuring their nationals do not buy the stolen product.

We are also told he has firm promises from those he appealed to.  Yet, rather than abating, the stealing has become an epidemic, threatening the economy of the country. From seven percent last year, it is now more than 20 percent.  Instead of the 150,000 barrels stolen every day last year, Nigeria now loses 400,000 barrels per day.

And the question is; who are these oil thieves? Are they like Boko Haram terrorists also ghosts? Is it true that the government and its huge security apparatus do not know who they are?  If really they don’t know, what does that say about the capacity of the Nigerian State?  Is there any other state in the world where such colossal quantity of state resources is stolen with so much ease?

When did the government realise that we are indeed in a big mess because Okonjo-Iweala is not telling us anything new?  In April, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) released data showing that the country will lose over N764 billion this year, representing about 20 percent of the 2013 budget if the oil theft pain in the neck was not checked.

Shell Petroleum Development Company, a major player in the industry, was not very conservative in its estimates. Last month also, the company, a major player in the industry, raised an alarm that the country may lose N900 billion this year unless something drastic was done to check the menace.

A month earlier, unions in the oil industry – National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and National Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) under the aegis of NUPENGASSAN lamented the loss of over $6 billion to crude oil theft and another N165 billion to the theft of refined products.

While the exact figures of what the country is losing to oil thieves may never be known since nobody can say with any level of certainty the quantity of crude oil extracted everyday in Nigeria, what is certain from all these claims is that a well-financed and highly organised criminal enterprise exists on a phenomenal scale. The theft has become an industry in itself.

If Okonjo-Iweala’s figure of 400,000 barrels is anything to go by, it then means that we are now doing worse than the pre-amnesty period, when oil theft peaked at about 350,000 barrels per day.

It is also important to note this quantity of crude oil stolen from our shores everyday is higher than the quantity produced daily by either Gabon or Equatorial Guinea.

Last week, President Jonathan’s Special Assistant on Niger Delta Amnesty, Kingsley Kuku, accused international oil companies of orchestrating the theft.

Insisting that “almost every oil company has pipeline protection contracts, pipeline surveillance contracts for local contractors,” Kuku alleged that “the same people who are meant to be securing these pipelines participate in oil theft.”

He advised the oil multinationals to “look inwards into their contracting processes, of their vendors and security contractors, x-ray them, renew their processes very well and deal with the issue of oil theft as it affects participation in-house, in the oil and gas industry.”

Expectedly, the oil companies have denied any culpability in the crime.

So, where does that leave us?

In the past, the same Kuku had come out to tell Nigerians that the amnesty granted Niger Delta militants, who were mainly oil thieves, had succeeded.

That is the height of self-deceit. Pipeline protection contracts were awarded to these same militants so that they can stop the oil theft.  Yet, what we are now getting from the billions of naira squandered in the name of pipeline protection is more oil theft.

And instead of stopping the theft, we are dissipating energy preaching to the international community not to buy the stolen products when we know that even if state actors decide not to, many non-state actors will still buy.

If the government cannot protect our oil wealth, then it has no business being there. Truth be told, it can if it wants to.  But it cannot because it lacks the political will to do so.  Government knows those stealing the crude oil. They are not ghosts but it is more politically expedient to chase rodents when the Nigerian house is on fire.

Kuku’s allegations are nothing other than red herring.  We are simply burying our heads in the sand, playing the ostrich, a game we know too well how to play.

President Goodluck Jonathan, we are told, has
appealed to European leaders to help stop the
theft of crude oil in his country by ensuring their
nationals do not buy the stolen product.
We are also told he has firm promises from those
he appealed to. Yet, rather than abating, the
stealing has become an epidemic, threatening
the economy of the country. From seven percent
last year, it is now more than 20 percent.

Obiagelli:
gej is either just incompetents or a full blown thief. From 7% to 20% in just one year? This is what you get when you put criminals in charge of oil installations, no wonder this criminals frequent Aso rock and one of them threatened to destroy this nation if the looting stops.

naptu2:

We haven't yet discussed the "other trade".

Goods are usually exchanged (one something goes one way, something else goes the opposite way) and they are not always exchanged for money.

Obiagelli:
gej is either just incompetents or a full blown thief. From 7% to 20% in just one year? This is what you get when you put criminals in charge of oil installations, no wonder this criminals frequent Aso rock and one of them threatened to destroy this nation if the looting stops.

naptu2:

We haven't yet discussed the "other trade".

Goods are usually exchanged (one something goes one way, something else goes the opposite way) and they are not always exchanged for money.