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+---- Thread: 450,000 barrels of stolen crude unsettle oil firms (/showthread.php?tid=23428)
450,000 barrels of stolen crude unsettle oil firms - Edoman - 10-10-2019
450,000 barrels of stolen crude unsettle oil firms
b[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.55)] 10, 2019
[color=rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7)]450,000 barrels of stolen crude unsettle oil firms[/color][/color]
The activities of crude oil thieves are given the operators of Oil Mining Lease (OML 26) some sleepless nights.
The operators are, therefore, calling on the Federal Government to come to their aid and rescue their businesses.
About half of the production of the asset is being siphoned on daily basis and this is seriously impacting the operations of companies that are equity holders in the asset and the Nigerian economy at large, they say.
The asset produces 10,000 barrels per day but it is losing around 5,400 barrels to oil thieves daily.
Implying that over 450,000 barrels of crude are lost within three months.
The asset which is jointly managed by officers of Nigeria Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) and First Hydrocarbon under what is called Asset Management Team (AMT) has suffered series of tapping on its crude oil pipeline by the thieves.
The stolen crude is either taken to illegal refineries site which has around 40 refineries scattered deep in the forest where they cook the crude or the crude is allegedly trucked out of the area to other destinations in the night.
One of the most worrisome aspects of the whole saga according to the company officials, is the fact that where this is happening at Agbarha-Otor which housed the LACT Unit of the company is around 700 meters away from the 222 Battalion of the Nigerian Army headquarters.
According to Blessing Okpowo, manager, Government, Security and Community Affairs, the thieves started stealing from about 500 barrels a day, then to 800 barrels; they increased to 1000, to 1,500 barrels a day. As of last week, the asset was losing 5, 400 barrels every day. When this is calculated over time, it has lost well 450,000 barrels of crude within three months.
He said the line being tapped comes from the company’s Flow Station at Ozoro.
“It is 29 kilometers from our flow station to the LACT Unit where we offload into the major trunk line that goes to the TFP (Trans Forcadoes Pipeline). So, it is in-between the 29 km that they have this tapping points and steal our crude,” Okpowo said.
The company he stated works closely with the soldiers and who also supports the organisation in providing security.
“There are over 40 soldiers that are in the company’s operations.”
He, however, stated that It is a mystery to him how the thieves still succeeds in stealing the crude oil without anybody getting arrested.
The Modus Operandi of the thieves is that they come to connect their holes to the pipeline in such a way that anyone can hardly notice it, he added.
“We discovered a three-inch pipe which they connected to our 10 pipeline, insert a valve and begin to load into trucks and go away. Underneath this place is where our 10” pipeline that goes to the LACT Unit in Eriemu,” he said.
“We came and harvested the three-inch pipeline that was connected to our pipeline and dug underneath three kilometers away before inserting their valve, we removed their pipe and clamped the hot tap spot. This is just the preliminary of what they did, the real refinery, that is where they are cooking the crude is deep inside the forest,” he added.