By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

Federal Government’s efforts to end the ugly incidence of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta paid off recently when, in collaboration with Nigerian security operatives, Tantila Security Services which bagged a surveillance contract on oil pipeline installations in the Niger Delta apprehended and destroyed a barge known as MT Brighton 1 which reports say, is stealing Nigeria’s crude oil and selling illegally refined diesel to foreign ships.

Information monitored on Arise News says MT Brighton 1, an 820- metric ton barge, was apprehended in one of the creeks running into

the Ramos River in Agge community, a border village between Delta and Bayelsa State. It was destroyed through explosion.

According to Arise Energy Correspondent, the illegal operations of the barge known as Brighton 1 has come to an end.

“The 820 metric ton barge has operated for years, stealing and selling stolen crude oil and illegally refined diesel”.

The report said it was arrested alongside a large wooden canoe conveying illegally refined diesel in one of the creeks running into the Ramos River.

Four suspects onboard the vessel were apprehended. These included Augustine Omote, a marine engineer, and Obiakpor Moses who supplies food and materials to them. Augustine who claimed that it was his first trip said that he had no idea that Christopher (his employer, now at large) wanted him to transport illegally- gotten product.

He claimed ignorant of the contents of the barge.

“Augustine claimed that during loading,” the report said, “some community boys approached him for settlement”.  But he told them to allow him contact his boss to discuss with them and sort them out as he was not the owner of the job.

Maritime Intel and security expert, a consultant for Tantita Security Services who, in collaboration with government and security agencies arrested the barge said the suspects are usually given a false sense of security by their sponsors to perpetrate the crime.

In a similar development, the illegal operations of Blessed Corporate Oil & Gas Services Petrol Station in Opete community on Warri Local Government Area has also been uncovered. The outfit is also said to be involved in the sale of stolen petroleum products.

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

If efforts aimed at achieving clean energy are to yield the desired fruits, the petroleum downstream sector must be given full attention in terms of fashioning out forward-thinking operational guidelines and expected timelines.

Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, Chief Executive, National Petroleum Authority (NPA) up Ghana, stated this in Lagos, Monday, at the opening session of the Oil Trading and Logistics (OTL 2022, Africa Downstream Week Expo) on the theme Energy Transition in the African Petroleum Downstream Context: Prospects, Challenges and the Way Forward.

Dr Abdul-Hamid expressed delight that already, experts in the petroleum downstream sector are being proactive in initiating conversations that will aid in fashioning out strategies to define and promote their relevance in the petroleum industry.

Of recent, he explained, the world is focused on the supply of cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy. This follows global warming and climate change and the implications of increase in gas emissions arising from intense human activity.

“There is a planned shrinkage in global production and supply of fossil fuels and the expansion of renewable energy. Western countries are setting targets to switch to renewable energy by the year 2030.

As a low emissions continent, Africa rather seeks to accelerate the exploitation of its oil and gas resources in order to fuel her industrialization and economic growth. This, certainly, will take longer than 2030 to achieve.”

Dr Abdul-Hamid recalled that many African countries have indicated unwillingness for now to do away with any of their hydrocarbon  deposits. For example, he said, Ghana plans to reach her zero emissions target by 2070 as Nigeria plans same by 2060. He explained that most African countries largely rely on refined petroleum products imports to sustain their economies.

“The bulk of crude oil produced on the continent is exported. The African continent is, therefore, highly susceptible to volatile petroleum products prices, unreliable suppliers and, more severely in recent times, depreciation of local currencies against the US dollar (which is the oil trading currency). Africa as a continent, is the most exposed to the current global energy trilemma. To survive, the continent needs to strike good policy and commercial balance among the three issues of energy equity (affordability and accessibility), energy security and environmental sustainability.”

“African nations need to be able to provide energy equity by ensuring that affordable energy is made  accessible to the citizens. They need to provide energy security by ensuring that there is continuous and uninterrupted supply of energy. Environmental sustainability needs to be pursued with a just and equitable energy transition to net zero emissions on the continent.”

He stated that for a while, demand for transportation fuels such as petrol and diesel in Africa will still be significant.

“Therefore, for us in the petroleum downstream industry, it is important to operate an enabling regulatory environment that maximizes our oil and gas potentials while promoting a just transition.”

By Izuchukwu Ozoemena

A Niger Delta group, the Kalabari National Assembly, says the recent award of a multi billion Naira pipeline security surveillance contract to Chief Government Ekpemopolo, alias Tompolo, cannot stand as it was done in bad faith.

The deal, the group says, excluded other genuine interest groups including the Kalabari people through whose domain the pipelines pass.

In a statement signed by

Engr. Dabotubo G. Agiobu and Comrade Tralapuye Gogo Abite, the group described the contract award as “unjust and another pathetic attempt made by the occupationist Nigerian state to foment conflict in the Niger Delta between Kalabari people and their Ijaw kith across other regions in the delta”.

The group was unequivocal that it opposes any attempt to award such a critical contract to a non-Kalabari contractor to secure pipelines and similar structures passing through their land.

“We want to assure the NNPC and their contractors that no oil pipeline within Kalabari land will be in the custodianship of an individual who is not a Kalabari son or daughter.

The Kalabari National Assembly, the statement stated, is preparing community youths, women and elders all across the affected Kalabari communities to resist and frustrate all attempts made by the NNPC’s chosen contractor to operate in Kalabari Kingdom.

The release said the Kalabari people have done it before not long ago and

are prepared to do it again.

“The advocates of the prestigious Kalabari National Assembly based at home and in the diaspora, being fully knowledgeable of the four billion naira per month oil pipeline surveillance contract awarded to five different companies, has resolved to staunchly object to and protest the exclusion, discrimination and side-lining of Kalabari indigenes from surveillance contracts in Kalabari land and the imposition of Non-Kalabari indigenes to infiltrate Kalabari territorial waterways and control the economic resources of Kalabari people.

“The Kalabari National Assembly views this unjust contract as another pathetic attempt made by the occupationist Nigerian state to foment conflict in the Niger Delta between Kalabari people and their Ijaw kith across other regions in the delta. We want to assure the NNPC and their contractors that no oil pipeline within Kalabari land will be in the custodianship of an individual who is not a Kalabari son or daughter as we are preparing our community youths, women and elders all across the affected Kalabari communities to resist and frustrate all attempts made by the NNPC’s chosen contractor to operate in Kalabari Kingdom. The Kalabari people have done it before not long ago, and we are prepared to do it again.

“Awarding surveillance contracts for oil pipelines within Kalabari Kingdom to Government Ekpemupolo’s (Tompolo) Global West company when there are already better qualified crucial stakeholders from Kalabari who had bid for the same contract as Tompolo is the highest level of disrespect, betrayal and deprivation towards Kalabari people on the part of the Nigerian minister of state petroleum, Mr Timipre Sylva who is an Ethnic-Ijaw, collaborating with the oppressive Nigerian state to dispossess our people of our wealth.”

The Kalabari National Assembly called on the NNPC and its contractor, Government Ekpemupolo of Global West Company to cede the protection of oil pipelines in Kalabari Kingdom to Kalabari indigenes only so as to avert unnecessary conflict and confusion in the Niger Delta resulting from the discriminatory, unfair and biased contract.