It was recently discovered that for years, about 250,000 barrels of crude oil are daily stolen through pipes laid from Forcados Export Terminal into the sea to unknown vessels and or owners.
Of course, there are vessels berthed and waiting on the sea each day where the crude is lodged and conveyed to the destination determined by the kingpin in the racket. He or she or they can’t be from the less privileged class.
Who are these owners? Are they spirits? Are they from the sky or moon? Are they common men? Are they like the revered unknown gun men? Are they part of the oil sector? Are they part of the system?
Who own the vessels? Are there no maritime security personnel combing the waterways and shores of the country to detect these evil activities of this cartel? Or is there a grand conspiracy?
Isn’t it the duty of the maritime security and to a large extent the Navy which guides the territorial waters of the country to checkmate activities like these?
Can an ordinary man have access, resources and confidence to engage in such massive illicit deals?
Who lays oil pipes? Roadside welders or experts in the oil business of drilling and refinery? Where are the pipes bought? Who buys them? Are they common pipes or they are special pipes? Who gives the specifications?
Indeed, this is an organized high-wired crime. It smells like insiders job. People outside the oil sector especially at the national level dare not dream of indulging in this kind of business.
Perhaps it is time the Federal Government through the Ministry of Petroleum go further than just rebranding the NNPC. The system is rotten and something needs to give way.
This writer shed tears when Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala narrated her ordeals as Coordinating Minister for the Economy. How her old mother was kidnapped and her abductors asked her to resign from her position if she wants her mother alive.
Her sin was for standing behind the reforms in the oil sector which attempted to unravel the mystery and monster behind the subsidy regime malady. She said a lot of oil marketers who claimed the FG was owing them were ghost creditors who were equally part of the ailing system and scheme.
They operate like a syndicate which create artificial scarcity and come up with crazy prices which leaves the FG almost at their mercy and the citizens in a state of hopelessness.
A lot needs to be revealed and fixed if Nigeria must get the oil sector right. Fixing the oil sector technically and or partially is fixing the country given the economic value of the sector.
