Fatigue is setting in, even among Nigerians, who are die-hard supporters of President Muhammadu Buhari, due to his frequent travels outside the country. But his trip to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, was to save the country from oil theft. MUSA ADAMU reports
Nigeria is reputed to lose millions of barrels of crude oil to oil theft carried out through the coastal border in its South-south. Though, it is not possible to know the exact volume of crude lost to this menace, some industry experts have put it at 400,000bpd.
According to oilprice.com data, Nigeria is the highest country with the highest incident of oil theft in the world.
The website estimated that about 400,000bpd of crude is stolen daily, ranking Nigeria worse than Mexico, Iraq, Russia and Indonesia, countries also plagued by oil theft.
In terms of monetary losses, the medium put Nigeria’s losses to crude theft at about $1.7 billion per month, representing 7.7percent of the country’s GDP.
The report by the website said: These figures paint a harsh picture about the inability of the Nigerian government and the multi-oil companies in the Niger Delta to do anything about this rampant theft. With oil theft hitting record levels in 2013, the G8 has been reminded of its pledges in the year 2000 to help Nigeria solve the problem.
“However, as the Global Financial Initiative (GFI) points out, stolen Nigerian crude oil is transported on internationally registered vessels, sold to international oil refineries and paid for using international bank accounts. With one group of thieves admitting to profit nearly $ 7,000 a day from their illicit deals, it will take some time to stop them.”
The haemorrhaging activities have continued in the country in spite of many assurances obtained from the metropolitan countries where buyers of this oil come from. Only recently for instance, the Nigerian security forces intercepted MT Dera, a barge and Runner Charley, a tugboat laden with 6000MT crude oil suspected to have been pumped from the Eremor 1 field well head. The country cannot continue on this path, especially now that its economy is in dire need. And to overcome this, Nigeria needs its neighbours through which the stolen oil is taken to the international market.
It is in line with this thinking that President Buhari’s state visit to Malabo was greeted with loud silence, even from ardent critics of his notorious junketing around the world since his second presidential coming.
According to the President’s media aide, Femi Adesina, in a statement, the trip was in continuation of Nigeria’s efforts to achieve greater security of lives, resources and investments in all parts of Nigeria and its sub-region.
Adesina also informed that both countries would reach agreements on collaborative measures to fight piracy, crude oil theft, arms smuggling and human trafficking.
The statement had partly read: “President Muhammadu Buhari will travel to Malabo tomorrow for talks with President Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea on further measures to protect the people and resources of the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea.
“The conclusion and signing of an agreement by Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea for the establishment of a combined maritime policing and security patrol committee on Tuesday is expected to be the major outcome of President Buhari’s talks with his host.
“President Buhari and President Mbasogo are also expected to discuss and agree on other collaborative measures to combat crimes such as piracy, crude oil theft, attacks on oil rigs, arms smuggling and human trafficking in the Gulf of Guinea.”
Expectedly, Garba Shehu, one of the media aides of the president updated Nigerians on what the president’s visit got for the country. In his widely publicised piece, termed “Important Takeways from President Buhari’s Trip to Equatorial Guinea,” the media aide gave a download of what the trip succeeded in chipping away from Nigeria’s only Spanish speaking neighbour.
He said, in fulfilment of the president’s to attention to crude oil thefts and the sabotage of oil installations in the delta region of the country after defeating the Boko Haram insurgency, he led a security team to Malabo to sign an agreement allowing both countries to put in place a “ robust mechanism for the effective coordination and management of security issues between the two countries to enable them eradicate maritime crimes and encourage peace and security in the region.”
He wrote: “The agreement is for the establishment of a combined policing and security patrol committee to oversee, manage, coordinate, plan and direct the execution of combined policing and security operations along the defined common maritime border of both countries.
“In drawing up this agreement, a contentious issue, especially for the Equatorial Guineans was whether a patrol team of one country can cross the territorial boundary of the other.
On how this administration was able to achieve a deal that the past ones couldn’t despite its obvious advantages to its security and economic interest, Garba disclosed it was hard to convince them that there was any plan of aggression by its more powerful neighbour and that a foray into their territory by Nigerians, or the other way round, where necessitated by a hot pursuit of criminals is in the best interest of the two countries.
“Nigerian officials calmed down their fears with assurances that a peaceful and stable Equatorial Guinea is in the best interest of Nigeria; that you don’t reward good neighbourliness with aggression.”
“The signed agreement represents the shared concern about the escalation of maritime crimes such as piracy, illegal fishing, poaching, attacks by armed groups, illegal oil bunkering, smuggling of goods, drugs, human and arms trafficking, sabotage and vandalism of oil rigs and installations, banditry, harassment of crew members and sabotage and the vandalism of ocean-going vessels.”
He said the agreement would ensure the eradication of maritime crimes and encourage the consolidation of peace and security along our common maritime border for the common good of our peoples and the stability of the region.
Some industry experts have always contended that for Nigeria to overcome the economic crime it needs to win its neighbour to its side. Therefore, this deal is seen in many quarters as the beginning of the end of coastal impunity that is crude oil theft.