The activities of private security operators in combating crude oil theft in Nigeria is estimated to save Nigeria over $43.2million daily.
One of the private security contractors of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC Limited, Tantita, made this disclosure while speaking at the maiden edition of Maritime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria, (MARAN) Annual Lecture, in Lagos, on Wednesday.
Speaking at the conference, the Executive Director, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Capt. Warredi Enisuoh, highlighted the crucial roles of private security operators even as he noted that dealers in crude oil theft have planted CCTV cameras in creeks to monitor their illicit activities.
He said, amongst others: “We have places where grass may not grow for the next 100 years because of crude oil theft and associated activities.
“In the past, these operators utilized fire to process the crude oil but they realized that security operators have drones and night vision capabilities to see the fire trails. So, they moved to electricity. When they realized we discovered their illicit activities with electricity, they translated to phosphoric acid. They pour the crude oil into several drums and pour phosphoric acid and wait for six hours for the acid to convert the crude to diesel that will be fetched from the top.”
Warredi, who is also a former Director of Shipping Development at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, (NIMASA), observed that having chased most of the perpetrators of crude oil theft away from the land areas, they moved to the creeks to attack oil well heads.
In his presentation, a former Director General of NIMASA, Barr. Temisan Omatseye, argued that since the end of the SAA contract operated by Ocean Marine Solutions Limited, OMSL, foreign vessels spend an average of $50,000 for security patrols in the country. He observed that OMSL SAA activities created a degree of comfort for global shipowners and filled a lacuna in securing the anchorage area.
The former NIMASA boss suggested that the Deep Blue Project assets could be deployed to fill the missing role of SAA, stressing that service could be free or at a much-subsidised cost since the former operators were adjudged to be extorting ship-owners.
He proposed a Response-Zone Transit Corridor concept, to create a patrolled transit corridor in the key high-risk areas in the Nigerian Exclusive Economic zone, (EEZ).
