The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, on Friday, launched a ‘Crude Theft Monitoring Application’ to curb oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
The launch was held in Abuja on the sideline of the signing of renewed Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) agreements between NNPC and its partners in Oil Mining Leases.
The portal with the address: ‘stopcrudetheft.com’ could also be accessed through a mobile phone.
It also has options for reporting incidences, with prompt follow up and responses as well as for crude sales documents validation.
Speaking during the launch, Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), NNPC, Mele Kyari, said the platform was created for members of the communities and other Nigerians to report incidents of theft and be rewarded.
He noted that “Vandals’ actions on pipelines became a difficult thing to deal with, but we engaged partners to ensure that we responded to the situation.”
He added that the process involved government regulatory bodies, security agencies and host communities to put up a robust framework to curtail the menace.
“There are still ongoing activities of oil thieves and vandals on our pipelines and assets, very visible in the forms of illegal refineries that are continuously put up in some locations and insertions into our pipeline network.
“Arrests have been made and vessels have been arrested by the Nigerian Navy. I commend the Armed Forces; in the last three months, they have done substantive work and destroyed some illegal refineries,” he said.
Kyari reiterated that international refineries where the stolen crude could be taken had obligations to ensure they bought Nigerian crude from credible sources which could be validated.
He said: “If they refused to do that, they would be held responsible as part of the culprits involved,” adding that the international arena and companies must report suspicious sales.
We cannot do this without international collaboration. It is impossible for any refinery to take crude they do not know the source; refineries are designed to process certain specific grades of crude.
Kyari further said: “every product that leaves the country must have a unique registration number by the NNPC and validated by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).
“Ahead of this, we are also creating a platform where end-users, particularly refiners and traders can validate the product.
“We cannot do this without international collaboration. It is impossible for any refinery to take crude they do not know the source; refineries are designed to process certain specific grades of crude.
“It is their duty to ensure that they validate this, because we have a unique number for every cargo of crude that leaves this country,” he said.
He assured that there is a total coordination process around all marine movements in the country with a functional platform.
“We have visibility around everyone’s operations and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is following everyone related to those transactions.
“Wherever there is massive movement of cash, EFCC will follow the person. We believe that the combination of all these will get us back to normalcy,” he said. (NAN)
