Nigeria’s military seizes stolen oil

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The Nigerian military has seized 5 000 tonnes of stolen oil stored aboard a ship as it tries to tackle the growing problem of crude oil theft in Africa’s leading oil producer. The military also seized 30 barges involved in oil smuggling.

French news agency Agence France Presse reports spokesman of the Joint Task Force deployed in the Niger Delta, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy Antigha, saying that they had impounded a “vessel engaged in the lifting of illegally refined petroleum products” in Bayelsa state on Friday. Two crewmembers of the Nigerian-flagged ship were arrested.

In a separate raid over the weekend along the Imo River, the military reported seizing 30 barges carrying crude and illegally refined oil.
“The JTF have discovered that there is a booming trade in stolen crude oil and illegally refined petroleum products along Imo River, which recently caused a multi-national oil company to suspend production in the area,” said Antigha.

The military said it has arrested dozens of suspected oil thieves in recent months and destroyed some 2,000 illegal make-shift refineries.

Seven Nigerians and two Ghanaians were this month sentenced to 10 years on each of nine charges filed against them by Nigeria’s anti-graft agency for illegal dealing in petroleum products.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude oil exporter but its production capacity is reduced significantly by oil bunkering, where thieves tap often unguarded pipelines which pass through the thousands of kilometres of winding creeks and waterways in the vast Niger Delta region.

Late last month the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Authority (NIMASA) said it had detained five vessels for illegally transferring and storing oil, as Nigeria attempts to clamp down on the illegal oil trade. The MT Otakoy 1 and MT Mariny were apprehended early last month while three others, MT Cape Verde, MT Selueshing and MT Adamas, were detained last week.

Lat last month Nigeria’s military said it had detained a small oil tanker and arrested 46 people trying to ship illegally refined oil products, pursuing a fight against an underground industry worth hundred of millions of dollars a year.

The military said 13 large wooden Cotonou boats and a speed boat were ferrying barrels of oil product to a ship with the capacity to hold around 1,000 barrels, valued at around US$100,000. The oil had been processed in one of the hundreds of makeshift illegal refineries hidden in the creeks, Reuters reports.

Yesterday Nigeria ordered an investigation into illegal oil bunkering, a shadowy industry thought to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year. “There is a an unprecedented upsurge of illegal bunkering activities within the Nigerian coastal region, resulting in the daily threat of vandalization of oil pipelines and other facilities and general state of insecurity in the country,” said assembly member Daniel Rayenieju, who presented the motion.

In a separate incident, security sources told Xinhua that sea pirates had attacked boat passengers along the Nembe waterways in Nigeria’s oil rich Bayelsa State. On Sunday four speedboats carrying businessmen were attacked by six pirates, who robbed them of cash and valuables. Some of the passengers were ordered to jump into the water after being robbed.

Confirming the incident, the State Chairman of the Maritime Union, Chief Lloyd Sese, said pirate activities have been on the increase in the oil communities along the waterways and creeks in the region. Sese said that although there had been no loss of lives in the past few months, 25 people were killed in similar attacks last year.