It is easy to steal Nigeria’s crude oil — Babajide Soyode

… Tasks government to set up special force to confront oil thieves

Former managing director of Warri and Kaduna refineries, Babajide Soyode, has revealed why it is easy to steal crude oil from Nigeria.

This is even as he called on the Federal Government to set up a special force that is well trained to confront crude oil thieves.

Soyode said this in his interview with Arise TV, stating that the stealing of Nigeria’s crude oil has nothing to do with the fact that the refineries are not working.

He said the tanker recently intercepted at Equatorial Guinea was laden with 3 million barrels of crude oil, and if this volume of crude is multiplied by $100 it would translate to $300million.

With this amount, he said, there is nobody that cannot be bribed to look the other way when such nefarious activity is taking place.

The former NNPC boss who spoke on the Arise Television Programme on Monday said Nigeria is practicing top to bottom corruption, hence, the inability of the government to identify those behind crude oil theft.

“Crude oil valued at $300,000 million was stolen because we have a society that is prone to corruption, especially, these days when foreign exchange is so scarce. This is just one tanker. They may be two, three or even four tankers a month. Under this circumstance, he said, it would be easy for the perpetrators to bribe their way through; the money is just too much.”

He said there is what is called Lloyd Register, a programme, which Nigeria can subscribe to and she would be able to monitor shipping activities in the Nigerian territorial waters, 24/7 from the regulatory offices.

Tranfigura and others he said use such programme to monitor the activities of their ships anywhere around the globe.

He said for reasons best known to the regulatory agencies or those concerned, they choose to be silent or refuse to do anything to monitor the activities of the tankers that enter Nigeria to lift crude oil.

“I did not think the regulatory agencies are having Lloyd Register, but I advise them to have it now if they are to be taken seriously.”

He advised that the media should insist that government agencies should have it. “NAPISM who is responsible for monitoring the production of all the crude oil produced by the joint venture partners should also have it.”

Having the equipment would enable the agencies to know who is coming in and out of the Nigerian territorial waters, he said.

The former NNPC boss said crude oil theft can be stopped soon. But first, the government should use those people arrested as examples for others to learn from. “A firm directive should be given to the Nigerian Navy that any ship that trespasses without the approval of the regulatory agencies should be disabled. He said the Navy knows how to disable tankers or ships. When we arrest people we make example of them if the talk is clean.”

According to him, in the oil and gas industry there is what is called LACT unit, that is, Lease Automatic Custody Transfer, or it can be called Production Automatic Custody Transfer, in other words, when you have crude that you have produced and you want to transfer it, you must go through the LACT unit. This is a very precise measurement instrument.

To stop crude oil theft, he said, the clean-up must start from the top. He asked: “Where is the national assembly with all the money they are making? They must bear responsibility for this.

He advised the government that would succeed Muhammadu Buhari to employ what is similar to FBI tactics’ ‘Mission impossible’ used to confront the mafias in the United State Of America to fight crude oil theft.

“The government may have to set up a special force that is well trained to confront crude oil thieves. They should be off the army and the Police, as talking with the oil thieves would not do it.

“However, before anything, the government must first and foremost develop Niger Delta in a meaningful way, as all the commissions that are been set up have wasted people’s time. If the people of Niger Delta are really not benefitting from crude oil, any arrangement put in place would fail.

“If not, I would advise that we should allow those who have gold to begin to exploit their gold, so also those that have cocoa and other minerals. All of us should share offshore oil with plenty of it going to the Federal Government.

“The government coming next year must be organised to firmly stop this thing. If not, it is not going to be easy, but it can be done,” he added.