I nominate Government Ekpemupolo for GCFR for doing what the Nigerian Navy has not done for ages. Magically, the men in the creeks are discovering the illegal oil pipelines:
“During the week, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a private security company owned by famous Niger Delta ex-militia leader, Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, which was contracted by the federal government of Nigeria to secure the pipelines, said it has discovered more massive illegal crude oil pipelines attached to Trans Forcados Export Trunkline. Reports said the newly discovered illegal pipeline was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in Burutu Local Government Area.”
Nigeria – what a nation indeed! The staff in the central bank should be worried. The government can just hire some street guys to run that show better since private security units are breaking Guinness records for most number of illegal oil pipelines discovered in weeks. Hopefully when they take over, the Central Bank of Nigeria will publish its audited financial statements. The last one is 2019!
If you have a current one, please email to me. I have a brief I am writing and desperately need the latest financials (from 2021 for comparison) of CBN.
My Comment: Shame on all of our security agencies. It just shows you that the thieves are high up there. Who will bring an ocean liner without authorization and enter a country unhindered get crude oil pumped into it for about 3 days and leave unscathed? To my mind they’re the ones that our security agencies are securing not the pipe lines. Even Government Ekpemupolo is trying to justify his pay, after all he was the person Jonathan gave the same job during his time, how come he was not announcing discoveries at the time? If he had been faithful in doing his job then most of what we’re seeing now should have been disconnected then. But at least give it to him, he is trying to justify his pay our security agencies don’t give a damn.
My Response: “Even Government Ekpemupolo is trying to justify his pay, after all he was the person Jonathan gave the same job during his time, how come he was not announcing discoveries at the time? ” – Uchenna Izundu, that guy is wickedly ahead. He has a carbon dating technology which tells you when the pipeline came to life (yes, when the illegal pipeline was installed). Check, that was a few weeks after his last contract expired!
The oil theft crisis that has greatly sabotaged Nigeria’s economy by drastically reducing revenue generation keeps unraveling. Illegal oil pipelines serving as conduit to oil thieves have been uncovered recently, yet more are unfolding.
During the week, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a private security company owned by famous Niger Delta ex-militia leader, Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo, which was contracted by the federal government of Nigeria to secure the pipelines, said it has discovered more massive illegal crude oil pipelines attached to Trans Forcados Export Trunkline.
Reports said the newly discovered illegal pipeline was connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunkline in Burutu Local Government Area. The discoveries are coming weeks after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited disclosed that “a 4-kilometer pipeline from the Forcados export terminal has been used to steal oil for nine years, resulting in the theft of hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil per day.”
The illegal four-kilometer crude oil pipeline, which is said to belong to Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), appears to have triggered the discovery of bigger points of stealing. The oil theft, which has reduced Nigeria’s oil production output by nearly half, is believed to have been aided by Nigerian security agents.
The newly discovered illegal plug point is reportedly located directly behind a military security post and it is less than a kilometer to the Forcados Export Terminal in Ogulagha community.
The report said the illegal pipeline was linked to another abandoned pipeline riser located within the vicinity and owned by AGIP Petroleum Company Ltd. According to the discovery, the oil thieves have been using the abandoned AGIP facility to ferry condensed crude oil to the sea for export.
Though the federal government’s decision to engage Tompolo’s Tantita Security Services in a multi-billion naira contract to secure the oil pipelines has been questioned, as he is believed to be part of the problem, it has been yielding unusual results.
Last week, the company apprehended a vessel named MT Deima with International Maritime Organization with number 7210525, while it was loading crude oil illegally along the Escravos River in Delta State. The arrested vessel was handed over to the security operatives under the Operation Delta Safe Joint Task Force, who didn’t spare more time before they set it ablaze.
The newly discovered point of stealing, the Forcados Terminal located in Ogulagha, Burutu Local Government Area, is the largest so far. It is said to have a nameplate capacity to export 400,000 barrels per day. It receives crude oil from the Forcados Oil Pipeline System, which is the second largest pipeline network in the oil-producing region, after the Bonny Oil Pipeline System in the Eastern Niger Delta.
“Most of the refineries that we procure from are actually shutting down their operations because of the clamour for green energy and COP26 compliance” – Chief Financial Officer of NNPC, Umar Ajia.
Yes, many refineries around the world are closing shops and Nigeria has to work harder to import petrol. This is consistent with my playbook that investing in modular refineries (not the multi-product type Dangote is building), which just refine crude oil, and give the core byproduct of petrol, may not be a good business decision if you are looking at an investment that would require more than a decade to break even. In other words, we’re in a transition phase on energy (Russia-Ukraine war or not) with many factors going to be programmed outside the capacity of Nigeria.
Many people are pushing for modular refineries in Nigeria. It is indeed a very exciting business, on the face of it: Nigeria needs fuel to run our generators and drive our cars. And with our refineries not producing the capacity the nation needs, we have been importing for years. Indeed, government will like to substitute the imports with locally refined products especially in this age of foreign exchange scarcity. It makes economic sense because Nigeria has the crude oil and we have no business importing refined products.
That is the optimistic exuberance why most people are getting into this. According to the Vanguard, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) expects about 20 investors to pump in $20 billion in the business.
Indeed, if they decide not to make fossil-fueled cars in Japan, Europe and the US, there is nothing you can do since they will not run those factories to serve only Nigeria. Our new car import is insignificant to shape global car production strategy.
The implication will then become: once the old fossil cars have been shipped to Nigeria, and the world moves into green energy, some of those modular refineries may see low demand. Of course, you can argue that we have at least three decades for that redesign to become a full reality.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has raised an alarm over the decision of most of the refineries supplying Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, to Nigeria are shutting down their operations due to clamour for green energy.
This is as the state-owned oil company has put the volume of petrol consumed in Nigeria at 66.7 million litres per day as against the average of 98 million being reported in some quarters.
This was made known by the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mele Kyari, during the continued investigative hearing of the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the petrol products subsidy regime from 2013 to 2022, on Monday in Abuja.
Comment: Well I know that you have been consistent with your position but my take remains that 200 million people have energy needs and their energy needs can be produced at a profit. We need refineries that can make aviation fuel available, we need refineries that will make diesel available for at least 2 decades. Lot’s of our companies that have embraced the green option try to make it hybrid. We can produce for ourselves and Africa. I believe that it will help if we had options within our country.
My Response: Actually, I have no position. I am just trying to analyze data. NNPC is saying that it is finding it harder to buy petrol because the global refiners are closing shops. My point is this: Nigeria cannot dictate the future on this and that we need to have a strategy. If Wall Street refuses to fund new refineries, even if you build one in Nigeria, you may not have the parts. Yet, this is not happening tomorrow. But it will come! Meanwhile, other use cases of crude oil are marginal and largely inconsequential to make a refinery profitable without petrol!
When Nigeria discovered crude oil in Oloibiri, Bayelsa, in 1956, political leaders and citizens believed that the resource would bring more abundance to everyone, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or religion. The early years of extracting oil and utilizing the revenue for socioeconomic advancement in all ramifications were not difficult, as expected. However, according to various sources, Nigeria began experiencing significant impediments that prevented her from generating expected revenue in line with daily production. Some people and groups felt that they were not receiving what was due to them from the national resource. The sources also establish how individuals and groups harmed and continue to disrupt resource production processes.
As previously stated, the disruption has resulted in a significant reduction in daily production. According to several reports, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited reported a number of barrels stolen by criminals worth billions of dollars. Despite the formation of the Joint Task Force, which includes the army, navy, air force, and mobile police, the criminals are succeeding. After determining the extent to which the force could address the challenge, the Federal Government hired the services of a security firm owned by one of the Niger Delta development activists. Government Oweizide Ekpemupolo, also known by his nickname Tompolo, owns the company.
A few days after the contract was awarded, local gangs and young people protested it, according to national media. Some social commentators and public affairs analysts believed that the protest was the work of saboteurs who had made money from illegal bunkering over the years.
Meanwhile, our checks show that many potential solutions to the problem have been proposed in various studies conducted by academics and independent think tanks. For example, a study that examined the crime of crude oil theft between 2012 and 2014 produced a template that could be useful in reducing the problem. However, it appears that none of the stakeholders involved are prepared to find a long-term solution to the problem.
Public Concerns
The examination of Nigerians who used the internet to learn about critical stakeholders and issues such as oil theft and illegal bunkering reveals some important insights for understanding the rediscovery of crude oil (oil theft) that was discovered 66 years ago. Nigerians, according to deep internet searches for information, are more concerned about oil theft in 2022 than they were in 2014 (see Exhibit 1). According to the analysis, they were more concerned about dwindling oil revenue in 2017 and 2016 than in other years during the government’s 9-year search for sources of oil theft.
In terms of whether the Joint Task Force, which includes the navy, army, police, and vigilantes, and Tompolo could stop the theft, our analysis shows that netizens (internet users) were more interested in seeing the security structure and Tompolo address illegal bunkering than the theft. However, our analysis shows that netizens were more interested in Tompolo’s abilities than in the security structure. According to our analyst, this outcome could be related to the recent contract awarded to Tompolo’s security firm, which has been widely reported in the news media. The Joint Task Force, on the other hand, appears to be appropriate for dealing with illegal bunkering, according to the analysis. Again, our analyst emphasizes that the outcome is consistent with existing facts establishing some positive results of the Force’s deployment of personnel to various locations in the Niger Delta Region over the years.
Exhibit 1: Nigeria’s Netizens Interest in Key Issues and Stakeholders between 2014 and 2022
Source: Google Trends, 2022; Infoprations Analysis, 2022
Figuring the Elites as Fall-Guys
Our analysis of netizens who searched for information about oil theft and illegal bunkering, as well as what they read as factors for dwindling oil revenue, reveals that illegal bunkering must have been considered as a key factor prior to the recent ‘rediscovery of crude oil.’ According to the analysis, one percent of those who expressed an interest in illegal bunkering were more than 60% more likely to be aware of and consider illegal bunkering to be a dominant factor. Nigerians on social media have accused political elites and some individuals in the Niger Delta Region of being perpetrators in the same way that the news media has.
In an interview granted a foreign newspaper, Alexander Sewell, a research specialist, notes the complexity of tracking oil theft and illegal bunkering. According to him, illegal crude oil trafficking involves the military, surveillance companies, politicians and local communities.
“There are two ways to steal oil. The first is to connect a pipe to a pipeline to convey the product to a barge. The barge can then supply artisanal refineries or go back and forth to a larger vessel anchored in an area where the river is deeper. This vessel will then head out to sea to refuel a tanker bound for South America, Europe or Asia. These tankers can also stay close to the West African coast and carry out transactions with other vessels on the high seas.
The second option is the so-called topping, which is the act of adding a quantity of undeclared crude oil to an official shipment. In this case, the documents are in order, the permits have been issued and traffickers can resell the extra oil as if nothing had happened. This second method is very difficult to investigate, especially since it often involves officials and members of the political élite. It is really a way to steal and move huge quantities of oil for minimal risk.”
Former Vice President and presidential flagbearer of PDP scored a mindless own-goal on Saturday when he spoke at the interactive session of the Arewa townhall policy dialogue in Kaduna. It was his worst speech as a politician who many have seen to be detribalized. Many in Nigeria still believe that Atiku won the 2019 elections against Buhari.
But with Tinubu coming with a high voltage political force in his domain, Atiku is moving back to that dangerous “small mind” of look at my name, look at where I come from, and the associated demons. The former vice president has many things he can point to for the citizens to vote for him. With Obasanjo, they ran a really decent playbook. As the VP, he was the unofficial coordinator of the economy, well ahead of the ministers. There was peace under them and new sectors like telecoms blossomed. They paid down debts or got them waived. I mean Waziri has many good records to prosecute this election.
What he does not need to say is that voters should vote for him because he is from the north. He is beyond that and he must move away for that. We need to preach competence. We need to canvas on readiness to read. We need to showcase vision. But NO to tribal politics.
Many northerners will vote for Atiku, Obi, and Tinubu. Many southerners will do the same. I do not expect Nigerians to use Atiku’s logic as they vote. Tinubu cannot tell SW “vote for me because I am Yoruba” or Obi to Igbos “you have never since 1999 voted for any Igbo, please vote for me as I am an Igbo”.
I condemn Atiku’s logic and challenge him to move away from that. My mathematics teacher in JSS3 was named Mr. Bukar. We all liked him because he was a really smart man. A teacher must have impacted your life to still remember his name decades after spending a semester in his class. Bukar for maths was a slogan and he booked many into mathematics (under him, no student failed Mathematics in JS3 external exam even though we had 3 who failed English. In other words, Mathematics was easier for all under him).
If they had sent an unprepared Igbo-man teacher from Umuahia who knew nothing, I am not sure that would have helped us. In other words, Nigeria can only rise on competence and not tribal sentiments. Let’s focus on that – and leave where we all came from!
”“I have traversed the whole of this country,” he said.
“I know the whole of this country. I have built bridges across this country. I think what the average northerner needs is somebody who is from the north, and who also understands the other parts of Nigeria and who has been able to build bridges across the rest of the country.
“This is what the northerner needs. He (northerner) doesn’t need a Yoruba candidate, or an Igbo candidate. This is what the northerner needs.
“I stand before you as a pan-Nigerian of northern origin.
Indeed, I hope the southerners who had voted for Atiku in the past are not seen as fools from Atiku’s perspective. Most voted for him because they felt he was more competent than the available options.
