The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has said that a suspicious vessel with a cargo of crude oil on board was intercepted by a private security contractor.

Development Diaries reports that Tantita Security Services intercepted the said vessel on 07 July, according to a statement issued by NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Garba Deen Muhammad.

According to the NNPCL, the vessel was headed to Cameroun when it was intercepted at an offshore location.

Preliminary investigations, according to the NNPCL, showed that the crude oil cargo was obtained unlawfully from a well jacket offshore in Ondo State, southwest Nigeria.

There are a lot of questions that ought to be asked about this development.

‘Further investigation into the activities of the vessel at the NNPC Ltd. Command and Control Centre also revealed that the Vessel has been operating in stealth mode for the last twelve (12) years’, the NNPCL’s statement read.

‘The last reported location of the vessel was Tin Can Port in July 2011’.

The Nigerian Navy has a duty to put an end to crude oil theft and all other illegalities in the country’s maritime environment, and also to arrest vessels involved in criminal activities.

Hence, it is surprising that the navy did not discover the movement of an illegal oil vessel for 12 years.

Why is the NNPCL working with a private security company to intercept a suspicious vessel, instead of the Nigerian navy?

There have been various measures put in place to address crude oil theft in Nigeria, but how effective have these measures been?

The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), in April 2023, disclosed that the country lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020.

Oil theft has a significant negative impact on Nigeria’s oil production and overall economy.

During his campaign for office, President Bola Tinubu promised to ensure maximum deployment of technology to curtail oil theft.

Development Diaries calls on Tinubu to deploy effective mechanisms in tackling oil theft in the country and order an investigation into allegations made by Asari Dokubo.

We also urge the Nigerian navy to step up its operations in maritime security, to prevent further incidences of oil theft.