The Nigerian navy has revealed that international oil corporations, not petty thieves are responsible for the oil theft.
Shell is among those named by the navy as participants in the oil theft ring in the Niger Delta.
The navy said the “oil heads” were left open on purpose so that criminals could take oil. The navy also asserted that older oil heads were removed under the pretext that they were unprofitable. In particular the aforementioned oil company’s response were oddly strange.
When they were informed of oil head spills. The Commander NNS Soroh reported seeing limitless streams of crude oil coming from Shell owned oil well.
“Seven months ago we saw that crude oil was running out from a Shell owned oil well. When we informed Shell oil company
..of this leakage their answer was startling. They claimed not to have observed it. It wasnt top priority. What kind of priority is that supposed to be? Crude oil is still gushing from the oil well as we speak and nothing appears to have been done about it.
Now, it will naive to think foreign oil companies are solely responsible for the the nation’s oil theft. We all know about the illegal pipeline from the FORCADOS export terminal that has been functioning discreetly for 9 years.
Abuja is going hard on oil theft in the creeks of the Niger Delta as it did with piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, with a 24 hours monitoring system soon to be installed. With a C4i command centre connected to both manned and unmanned aircrafts and ships and amoured vehicles.
Imagine an entire pipeline 4.5km long siphoning thousands of barrels daily. It takes an elite level crime syndicate to pull this off. The navy only showed interest in these oil companies because of their response when they were told of the theft. Their response raised questions
..about whether they were directly participating in the hesit or rather were in charge of the entire smuggling network for the profit of their western employers.”
