Confirmed Results Recorded - Oil Theft in Nigeria
Oil Theft - SHELL admits Jonathan lead govt strategy is working |
|
Joint task force actively patroling the riverine area of the niger delta region where oil theft activities take place |
|
Oil theft is an illicit trade that involves the theft of crude oil and its derivative products through a variety of different mechanisms with significant economic, social, environmental, governance and security implications. This criminal act has contributed significantly to the poverty and degradation that exists in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria today. Nearly all of the country's primary reserves are concentrated in and around the delta of the Niger River, but off-shore rigs are also prominent in the well - endowed coastal region. The issue of oil theft in the Niger Delta has been a problem for a long time but considered by many as ‘tolerable’ however, today there is a clear recognition from the Nigeria Government that this illegal practice is now having a ‘negative impact’ on the entire economy. The Jonathan led government have analysed the problem and decided to setup a Joint Task Force (JTF) in Niger Delta codenamed "Operation Pulo Shield" to tackle the problem by destroying illigal refineries in the affected region. On July 12, 2013, Troops of 3 Battalion, 5 Battalion, 146 Battalion and 343 Regiment of the Nigerian Army and men of the Nigerian Navy’s Forwarding Operating Base FOB Formoso, all on Joint Task Force anti-oil-theft operations have, in a series of operations mounted 3-12 July across the Niger Delta, impounded a total of three barges, a tugboat and forty nine (49) open boats, scuttling 35 illegal oil distillation camps and arresting fifteen suspects in the process. A total of 600,000 litres (18 road tankerloads) of illegally distilled diesel were also seized in the process.
This approach achieves two objectives, the first is it sends out a clear message to all those engaged in this illegal activity, it is no longer business as usual and secondly this approach allows us to gather the evidence to bring those involved (people caught in the operational act on the ground and the sponsors of this illegal activity) to justice. The Jonathan lead government recognises oil theft is not simply a local problem but one that has an international dimension, as a result, we are actively seeking international cooperation to crack down on laundering of oil theft money through global banks linked as well as the refining of stolen crude.
[ Download the pdf version of this article ]
|
