Aiteo decries sustained attacks on its multi-million-dollar trunk line

Crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism have continued unabated in Nigeria despite awarding pipeline surveillance contracts to indigenous firms by government agencies, international and indigenous oil companies.

Surveillance contractors are ostensibly tasked with monitoring sections of oil pipeline, identifying any breaks and protecting them from vandals, but that have not been achieved. Recently, Edo State governor and chairman of the ad-hoc committee of the National Economic Council on Crude Oil Theft, Prevention and Control, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, disclosed that 22 million barrels of crude was stolen in the first half of 2019.

However, a well-known award of surveillance contract to an indigenous firm, Ocean Marine Solutions for the protection of the strategic 87-kilometre Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP), valued at about $18.4 million, last year, sparked controversy.

This is the reason Eastern Exploration and Development Company of Nigeria Limited (AITEO) has decried sustained attacks on its key national multi-million-dollar pipeline infrastructure, the 150,000 barrels per day capacity Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL).

Despite significant investments in security, technology and civic engagements, the destructive pattern of pipeline vandalism still persists, according to its spokesman, Mathew Ndiana.

“These attacks are persistent, sophisticated, appear timed to inflict debilitating and disruptive effect, all indisputably calculated to decimate Aiteo’s production output in the short, if not medium term. And, regrettably, these vicious and malicious exertions by individuals and faceless entities are having that unavoidable effect.

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“The disruptions that these attacks have brought about has led to direct, irretrievable and significant losses in production and consequently has created revenue deficits that directly impact all the stakeholders across the relevant value chain.

“The consequences say nothing of the significant negative and inherently damaging effect that these malicious infractions have on the environment,” he said.

He argued that it is a matter of utter dejection and frustration that in 2019 alone, Joint Investigative Visits (JIVs), comprising security and regulatory agencies as well as community representatives and Aiteo personnel to ascertain cause of the breaches to the NCTL, have revealed that 98 per cent of all incidences were attributable to third-party infractions alone.

The number of barrels lost to these incidents almost compare in volume to the country’s total daily production. By virtue of this level of sabotage, the NCTL has been shut down for 61 days this year alone, constituting 83 per cent cause of downtime in the year. Over the last four years, more than 200 shut down days have been recorded on the asset.

Industry sources forecast that Nigeria will be producing at least 2.5m barrels per day (bpd) by the middle of 2020, mainly by fixing damaged pipelines and dealing with security problems.  In the face of this extremely high level of deliberate sabotage, it seems clear that there are interests within the country that seem determined to scuttle this aspiration.

“Aiteo wishes to state that this continued sabotage of critical economic oil assets must be confronted frontally, with all resources available to the country as a whole.

“We renew and reaffirm our total commitment to working with all agencies and interest groups to arrest this damaging atrocity. Our assurance to all stakeholders to ensuring a sustainable environment where economic development can thrive remains unassailable.

“We acknowledge the assiduous effort of the joint task force and call for wider collaboration between all law enforcement agencies as well as policy alliances between all arms of government to end these economically destructive infractions as soon as is practically possible.

“The losses to us as a commercial concern are significant and potentially irreparable: the losses to Nigeria through the deprivation of revenue as a direct enabler for the improvement of the quality of life of our people is so much greater. The disastrous subsistence of this malaise must be permanently resolved now,” he said.

Nigerian Tribune