Recent approval byPresident Muhammadu Buharifor theNigerian National Petroleum Company Limited(NNPCL) toengage the servicesofan oil pipeline surveillance firmto guard Nigeria’s oil pipeline networkseems to be yielding results.Led by Government Ekpemupolo,popularly known as Tompolo,the security company, which on Tuesday also secured Senate endorsement, is now vigorouslyconfronting a menace thathas for year’s defied solutions.We hope it will be the beginning of ending the near industrial scaletheft that has almost crippled the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.

Prior to the engagement, figures from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission(NUPRC)had shown that Nigeria,which is yoked to a dubious subsidyregime in the downstream sector,had lost nothing less than 120 million barrels of crude oil between January and September 2022.Crude oil loss in production translates to $12.6 billion in less than a year, according to the NUPRC.It therefore came as no surprise thatNigeria’s submission to theOrganisation of Oil Producing Countries (OPEC)secretariat put September crude output at 938,000 b/d, just over half its quota for the month, while total liquids production was only 1.14mn b/d.Thiswas the magnitude oftheexistential economic crisis of mind-boggling proportion thatnecessitated seekingdesperate solutions to one of the largest organised crimes targetedat the nation’s economy.

In August,despite the outrage and condemnation that greeted the announcement,the NNPCLengagedthe indigenous pipeline surveillance firms to curb the glaring threat to the welfare of Nigerians.Thesurveillancefirm,according to the NNPCL Chief Executive, MeleKyari,hasdiscovered 295 illegal connections to NNPC pipelines many of which have been in sabotage operations for years.Thousands of illegal refineries in the region have also been destroyed. This is in addition to the shocking arrest ofthose behind a87-meter-long rogue MT Dein, with registration number L85 B9.50. At the time of arrest, this syndicatehad pumped between 600 and 650 cubic metres of crude oil into five compartments of the vessel with 12 compartments from an illegal connection attached to a CNL crude pipeline in theEscravos, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.

Clearly, the positive outcomes shown in thereports from theNUPRC reveala marked8.18 per centincrease in oil production in early Octoberto about1,014,485 barrels per daycomparedwith September’s production of 937,766 million barrels a day.To imagine that the country suffers such enormous revenue depletion while begging for foreign loans to finance projects is, to say the least, lamentable.It is therefore important tosustain all current efforts even while we may seek technological solutions in the long run.

However, given the rising production and the concomitant foreign exchange inflow, it is obvious thatthecost ofthelocal surveillancesecurity outfitis justifiable having regard to thehumongous amounts that would have continued to be lost to the massive theft of the nation’scrudeoil resources.What the federal government needs to do, therefore, is to consolidate the gains of the past few months by ramping up the fight against the crude oil thieves, who in the words ofthe Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva,are highly placed and wealthypeople.

Although this massive leakage has been going on for years with all the dire implications for the environment and national economy, the situationwasalmost out of controlbefore the intervention of engaging a security company.Not only must the federal government ensure that these big criminals are apprehended and brought to justice but must also ensure that steps are taken to castrate their capacity to further harm the country.