Nigeria police arrest 27 oil thieves at pipeline

By Areeb Hasni May 9th, 2012 ( 1 Comment )

Abuja: At least 27 people including five Nigerians and 22 Ghanaians were apprehended by Nigerian troops alleged of stealing oil from a pipeline in the Niger Delta, media reported on Tuesday.

According to reports the Nigerian army’s top commander Brigadier General Tukur Buratai claimed that they also impounded two boats, one of which was carrying 25,000 metric tonnes of suspected crude oil.

“Our troops arrested the suspects on Sunday while they were doing illegal bunkering around Awoba flow station in … Rivers state. They vandalised the pipeline and stole the crude,” the state’s top commander said.

“We arrested 22 Ghanaians, five Nigerians and two of their vessels. One of the vessels was loaded with 25,000 metric tonnes of substance suspected to be crude oil.”

Nigeria is the world’s eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but thieves take a sizeable proportion of its output by drilling into pipelines in operations called ‘bunkering’.

Oil majors say bunkering is a major headache in the oil rich Niger Delta, a labyrinth of creeks and swamps that has for decades been plagued by militant activity and poor environmental management, leading to devastating oil spills.

An amnesty in 2009 sharply reduced militancy in the onshore swamps and waterways of the Niger Delta but criminal gangs tapping oil pipelines is still a major problem.

Royal Dutch Shell estimates that bunkering siphons 150,000 barrels of oil per day from Nigeria’s production, and has become a major deterrent to exploring for new fields.

The company said on Friday it had declared force majeure on Nigerian Bonny Light crude oil liftings due to oil theft and that 60,000 bpd of oil had been shut down.