The trend of sabotaging the national economy through illegal refining of crude oil, otherwise known as oil bunkering, appears unending in the Niger Delta region as syndicates operating the illegal business devise new means of survival on a daily basis, despite the efforts of the Nigerian government to tackle the problem.

Weekend Trust gathered that the syndicates are made up of people from all sectors of the economy, including the locals, traditional rulers, clergy, security operatives, staff of oil companies, among others.

The business of crude theft and illegal oil refining is also fast becoming a booming venture in the region, with many of the youths aspiring to go into the business of supplying illegally refined petroleum products, popularly known as ‘kpofire’ in parts of the country.

Despite efforts by successive Nigerian governments to curb the ‘illegal business’, the cartels operating it are undaunted, taking advantage of the terrain and conspiring with compromised security agents in the region to continue with their sabotage.

Weekend Trust learnt that each day, oil companies in Nigeria lose between 300,000 and 400,000 barrels of oil to theft, which also account for almost 15 per cent of the country’s 2.4 million barrels per day production capacity.

Bunkering involves oil theft, including the diversion and smuggling of oil and the unauthorised loading of ships. It involves tapping into oil pipelines and transporting the stolen oil elsewhere to be sold internationally or refined locally. To access the oil, a small group of welders will puncture a pipeline and establish a tapping point from which the group operates.

Though most of the refining sites are located in the creeks and forests in the riverine areas, these activities occur throughout the areas where pipelines are located – in Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Imo, Akwa Ibom and Abia states – thereby causing environmental pollution in the Niger Delta region.

Oil export revenue accounts for 70 per cent of Nigeria’s total government revenue and 95 per cent of the country’s export income. A loss of 300,000 barrels a day costs the government roughly $1.7 billion a month.

Residents of some communities in Bayelsa State, where these oil bunkering activities are being carried out, told Weekend Trust that it would be difficult to stop oil theft and illegal refining in the Niger Delta, as some of those who are supposed to enforce government laws are complicit.

An Illegal bunkerer shares his story

An illegal oil bunkering site operator in Biseni community in Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State told our correspondent, on condition of anonymity, that illegal oil bunkering has supply chains and is aided by influential people in society.

Also, Michael Lawrence (not real name), a graduate of Microbiology, said difficult economic realities frustrated him, which was why he abandoned his certificate and found a job as a motorcyclist (Okada rider). He plies his new trade in Oyigbo, Eleme and Odagwa Etche areas of Rivers State. The Okada business, he said, connected him to a friend who introduced him to oil bunkering.

Our correspondent hired Jackson to convey him to Odagwa Etche on his bike, and in the course of the journey, Jackson engaged him in a conversation about how he was introduced to oil bunkering. Jackson converted his bike’s fuel tank into a 20-litre tank in which he siphoned crude oil from one of the ruptured oil facilities in Odagwa Etche.

He transports the stolen crude oil to one of the illegal refining camps in Oyigbo, where crude oil is stored in storage tanks. The preserved crude oil is then refined into condensed fuel through a locally fabricated furnace and sold to designated buyers.

But how Jackson was able to maneuver the watertight military outpost in Asa Oyigbo axis beats the correspondent’s imagination. About four military outposts are mounted from Odagwa link road to Asa Oyigbo axis.

“Oga, let me be honest with you, this Okada business is not what gives me money. I was introduced to oil bunkering by a friend when I was becoming depressed, as after graduating from the university with a BSc in Microbiology, I could not get a job. The friend introduced me to oil bunkering. I work with a cartel in the Etche axis that specialises in oil bunkering.

“This fuel tank in my bike does not supply fuel to the bike. I reconstructed it to take as much as 20 litres of crude oil. I did another reconstruction that supplies fuel directly to the bike carburetor. I use the reconstructed tank to carry crude oil and kerosene, depending on the one that is available. I did all this to beat the security checks along the route.

“Each time I approach the security outpost manned by soldiers, they give me a free pass because they cannot, in their wildest imagination, suspect that the bike’s fuel tank is carrying another thing. I take the product, if it is crude oil, to a dump site in Oyigbo, where it’s refined into petroleum products. In a day, I convey as much as 100 litres of crude oil because the tank can take as much as 20 litres at a go,” Jackson stated.

The motorcyclist said he makes as much as N500,000 from the illegal business every month.

President of MOSOP speaks

Fegalo Nsuke, the president of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) said, “The business of oil theft has become very sophisticated and is said to involve experts, government, military and staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) and other multinational oil companies involved in oil exploration. Despite the involvement of the Nigerian Army, Navy and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence (NSCDC), the criminal activities have continued and will continue to thrive until the people rise against the cartels responsible.”

“First, it is big business and very attractive, so people will continue to take the risk to do it. Secondly, the security forces have been complicit, and no one has been held accountable. For example, the former governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, once raised an alarm over crude oil theft in parts of Ogoni and we have no idea if any action was taken against the cartels responsible because that business continues to date.

“Thirdly, the people have not taken responsibility to stop it because what they are used to is a corrupt system that does not benefit them. So, for the people, ‘why fight to further enrich a corrupt system’? The solution will lie in how much the government is able to build trust and confidence in the people to make them defend their public wealth. Government spending should be prudent, and the income of public officers should be cut to increase expenditure on social security and job creation. People should see that what they do for the country is worth doing, not just to increase how much is available for public officers to loot.

“The Customs should be reformed and held responsible for the weapons that flow into our country through the borders. We cannot always blame the Ministry of Defence, while leaving out those whose job it is to prevent the inflow of arms that cause the problems.”

Dangers involved

A former operator of an illegal refining site in the Igbogene/Okaki axis of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, told Weekend Trust that he had to abandon the illegal business because of the risk involved.

He said, “Though there Is money in the business, whenever there is a fire outbreak, hardly anybody in the camp survives. We are not even afraid of the government’s security forces because we have our channels and the protection to operate.

“Bunkering is a very lucrative business; it will be very difficult to stop. Whenever you see those camps destroyed or products burnt by the security forces, maybe it’s because the operators did not do the groundwork well.

“Besides, these camps are in the swamps and creeks, which are difficult to penetrate. Crude oil is taken from the pipelines on the high sea, and the terrain is also difficult for security forces. It’s not only that the business itself is risky, but there’s also the pollution it brings to the environment.

“After the cooking (refining), we get cover to move the products to any part of the country and even outside. The business is not only about cooking the crude oil; there are some operators who take the crude and sell it for refining abroad, so the business is a chain,” he said.

Also speaking, an indigene of Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, where the first oil well was discovered in 1956, Comrade Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli, said oil bunkering involves the vandalisation of pipelines and other instruments to facilitate the theft of crude oil that is either sold in its raw state to foreign allies or agents, or locally refined and sold to the local market, perpetrated by a chain of well-organised syndicates in connivance with staff of IOCs and military personnel who are charged with the duties and responsibilities of securing the pipelines and other facilities.

Ikuli, who is also the National President of the Niger Delta Non-violence Agitators Forum (NDNAF), explained that crude oil bunkering and illegal refining are among the greatest evils perpetrated by economic saboteurs against the government and people of the oil producing communities.

He said: “Beside the millions, if not billions, of naira that the government loses in revenue due to illegal bunkering activities, it is contributing in no small measure to the prevalent environmental genocide that the IOCs are carrying out in the Niger Delta region.

“There are various layers, stages and types of bunkering taking place daily across the country, especially within the oil-producing communities and states. While the people of the localities are involved in the stealing of small quantities that they refine and sell, the major bunkering is done by highly placed individuals, including people in government and even in the military.

“Those in this category use big vessels to illegally lift crude oil from different oil facilities, which they take out of the country in collaboration with highly placed security personnel who give them cover.

“It is a generally known fact that no vessel enters or leaves the Nigerian waters without the knowledge of the Nigerian Navy (NN). Sadly, vessels loaded with illegal crude leave this country daily without being apprehended, except for the few that are often used to do media dressing.

“As long as corruption is allowed to continue to walk naked on the streets of our towns and villages due to our weak judicial system and law enforcement processes, crude oil bunkering will continue to thrive because offenders are not handed the necessary punishments due to our selective justice system.”

A traditional ruler gives perspectives

King Bubaraye Dakolo, the Ibedaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom and Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of Chiefs, whose domain hosts most of Shell and other multinational oil companies’ facilities, said illegal refining thrives in the Niger Delta because the authorities are putting all their efforts into fighting bunkering and oil theft in the wrong direction.

King Dakolo said, “The authorities are putting all their efforts in the wrong direction. It’s like a young man who wants to go into a church building, and he goes somewhere around where the church is located, and then he faces a sycamore tree and starts knocking at the tree, expecting it to open for him to enter the church. First and foremost, for you to solve the problem, you must diagnose it. So, the federal government or the Nigerian state, as a matter of fact, has misdiagnosed the malady that has to do with oil and gas theft.

“Let me tell you who an oil thief is, and that the Nigerian state is not chasing oil thieves. They’ve never attempted to even chase one, and that is why, in spite of their so-called best efforts, the Joint Military Operations (JTF), despite being here for over 25 years, has not achieved much. It is more of drama and of not thinking creatively.

“Now, who is an oil thief? An oil thief is someone who has properties in Banana Island, who has properties in Abuja, who has properties in England, who has properties in Europe, or who has properties in America. I’m talking about choice properties. An oil thief most likely will have a private jet, a yacht of his own, or may even have a private refinery abroad. An oil thief cannot spend a night in the swamp of the Niger Delta. If he attempts it, there will be security planes in the air, security operatives left, right and centre, just to guarantee him a short sleep.

The oil thieves

“So, what I’m saying here is that the oil thieves do not stay in the Niger Delta; they are abroad, they are in the most-secured places in this country. Anybody who is being accused of oil theft, who is resident in the swamp, is at best a victim of oil thieves. About three trillion litres of oil are stolen, and this is done through very serious international conspiracy, international oil and gas corporations, and then extremely weak regulators in the Nigerian state.

“So, most of those they are parading are more like victims. Have you wondered why there is no way out of oil theft in the Niger Delta?

“The Nigerian state has allowed oil theft to go on for decades by not using the oil and gas resources properly for the welfare of the citizens, by not educating the citizens on the value of a clean environment, by not providing petroleum products at affordable costs or rates across the country. They invariably created an opportunity for concocted nonsense in the name of adulterated petroleum products to now be an alternative for petroleum products. That is why the efforts that you called efforts, which I call mis-efforts, have not yielded positive results.

“If they want to get the right results, they should refine it well and make sure petroleum products are everywhere and I can tell you that in one week, this whole thing will stop because nobody will see stone-free rice and prefer to eat stones with some bits of rice in them if the costs are the same,” he said.

A former governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Seriake Dickson, while speaking on the matter said he does not share the sentiment that Ijaw youths are behind oil thefts in the Niger Delta, saying they lack capacity and technical know-how to do so.

Speaking during a visit to the Pere of Gbaramatu Kingdom, Oboro-Gbaraun II, the ex-governor said that oil theft perpetrators resided outside the region.

Dickson, who is currently the senator representing Bayelsa West in the National Assembly, said, “Those big players behind the crude oil theft are not from the region but are based in Lagos, Abuja, and other parts of the world.

“Those who, daily, under-declare what is produced; those who have refused to properly monitor and record what is produced for over 50 or 60 years should take the blame.

The environmental factor

Lamenting the negative effects of oil theft and illegal oil bunkering, a human rights and environmental activist, Comrade David-West Bekinwariy David, said while criminally minded people are making money to the detriment of other people’s health, the environment is highly polluted.

He faulted the destruction of seized stolen crude and bunkering camps by the security agencies, instead of arresting people involved.

“They are in the habit of setting fire on tankers loaded with illegal crude or cooking camps, which has also contributed to polluting and degrading the environment.

“At a point, we began to have soot everywhere; people could no longer breathe well, and life expectancy in the Niger Delta also reduced. So, the government needs to do more by engaging the locals in securing the pipelines, where these locations are. But for us to say we can completely stop bunkering, I think that would be ambitious; we can only minimise it and continue to carry out sensitisation, preach to the people, and make them see the dangers involved in it and how it is destroying our environment,” he said.

Bunkering: How it started

Weekend Trust findings show that the issue of oil theft and illegal oil refining actually started in Nigeria in the Niger Delta region in the early 1980s, when people living in the area where pipelines criss-crossed began to sabotage them to steal crude oil, which they conveyed in canoes to sell.

Then, the illegal practice was said to be common at the waterfronts in Abonnema in Rivers State, Ole in Delta State, and some places in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

NNPCL data on bunkering

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) in responding to Weekend Trust request on Bunkering data, said it has deactivated 7,973 illegal refineries, and has disconnected 5,690 illegal connections in the last one year.

It said a total of 2640 vandalism was reported within the period.

The NNPCL private security force also recovered 2.3 million barrels of crude, 194.4 litres of AGO, 66.7 thousand litres of PMS and 1.2 million litres of DPK.

It further noted that 2,274 suspects have been arrested and handed over to the security agencies.

The report identified the flash points as: Oweza, Ibaa, Okpotuwari, Mgbede, Obiafu, Odogwa, Egbeme, Azuzuama, Abacheke, and Obrikom.

Comrade David-West Bekinwariy David sheds more light

He said, “the issue of illegal oil bunkering did not start today. It has been there as far back as the late 80s, but in the 90s, when the militancy era started in the Niger Delta, bunkering became a free-for-all, particularly in Rivers State. Bunkering became the activity of the day, where people used wooden boats to convey the stolen crude. A place called Abonnema Wharf in Rivers State was the epicentre of bunkering. Then, somewhere around Ole too.

“The Niger Delta youths felt that they didn’t have any other option than to destroy the pipelines so that they could syphon the oil and make money from it. So, bunkering turned out to be the black gold of the youths of the Niger Delta region. Every Tom, Dick and Harry went into it, despite the risk involved. Bunkering got to its peak in the 1990s, but then, the Niger Delta youths didn’t go into oil bunkering without the support of security agents.

“The bunkering the Niger Delta youths do here is just a very minimal aspect; the main bunkering that takes place at the high seas is the one that we cannot quantify. What about the bunkering they do at terminal points in connivance with the authorities? We also discovered that security agents are involved.

Weekend Trust observed that oil spills and explosions are a regular occurrence in the Niger Delta. Pipeline vandalism from bunkering leaves pipes, especially, vulnerable to leaks, spills and major accidents. Shell Petroleum Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and other multinational oil companies claim that 70 per cent of all oil spills over the last five years were the result of sabotage to their facilities.

In 2011, the United Nations Environment Programme found that oil pollution had devastated mangroves, contaminated soil and groundwater, destroyed the fish habitat, and posed a serious threat to public health in Ogoniland. (Weekend Trust)

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