The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has hailed former militant leader, High Chief Government Ekpemupolo on the discovery of illegal pipelines in Delta State.
Daily Report reported how Tompolo’s Tantita Security Services Limited discovered two major illegal pipelines on the Trans Forcados Export Trunkline and connected to the high sea.
Operatives of Tantita also announced the discovery of over 58 tappings on the major pipeline in Delta and Bayelsa states.
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General Manager, of Joint Venture Operations of National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Zakariya Buduwara, on Saturday visited the site of the discovered illegal crude oil pipelines and paid tribute to operatives of Tantita and Tompolo, for the findings.
The inspection visit revealed that the perpetrators of the latest crime had tapped into Shell’s 48-inch export line from where crude was illegally siphoned into waiting vessels, ready for shipment.
Buduwara hence thanked, saying:
“Tantita Security Services have been doing a great job.”
He again said:
“NNPC has been on its toes in trying to bring stability to the host communities especially the one we saw which has to do with the crude evacuation line.”
Buduwara further bade to all stakeholders to collaborate in battling the oil thieves much earlier “but we actually discovered this about a week ago, after we’ve gotten full support of NNPC to go in.”
He said that
“The perpetrators of this particular organised crime had tapped into Shell’s 48-inch Export line. The crude has been cleaned up, ready to go. It’s quite expensive so they tapped into it.
“The place was initially filled with water but technologically, they were able to connect their own pipe under water. But we thwarted their line, we traced it to the point where it was tapped.
“We had to create two dams on either side of the pipe so that the water contained in the dam can be pumped out. For days, we pumped the water out before the illegality was exposed.”
Enisuoh, on his part, said the culprits illegally disconnected a disused riser operated by AGIP “and they piped crude to BeneBoye flow station.
“So, instead of piping crude to the flow station the smartest boys in the room decided to export crude, by cutting the AGIP line and connecting theirs.
“And at night, the usual thing happens which is to bring in ships close to the particular platform, connect their hoses and fix same to the vessel to collect the crude. And off they go from there. That is actually a summary of what has happened.”
Enisuoh again said:
“They are always smart. But they are not smarter than the NNPC, Nigeria or the operatives of Tantita Security Services.
“We are not going to predict what will happen next, so that people don’t get smarter than us. We have to keep what we have for now and plead with those who took their time to steal from Nigeria to please stop. We have suffered enough. I think it is high time we all come together and do something different.”
