The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd., Mele Kyari, and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor on Friday declared that an
extensive investigation will be conducted into the newly discovered illegal pipeline.That the illegal pipeline is attached by yet to be identified culprits to the Trans Escravos pipeline at Yokre Flow Station in Ogulagha oil field of Buritu Local Government Area of Delta State.
This, according to them, is with a view to identifying the perpetrators and sanctioning them according to the provisions of the law.
They claimed preliminary investigation showed that the illegal pipelin led to an illegal loading point in the creeks where large quantities of crude oil are allegedly being diverted and stolen.
Speaking on the discovery, the Chief of Defence Staff declared, “This is an eye opener. We are going to ensure an extensive investigation into the whole revelation to get to the roots with a view to reviewing the entire security architecture across board, among other issues.”
Also speaking, Kyari sais, “The illegal attachments on the Trans Escravos pipeline is professionally done and the end result is that they connected this to an inactive pipeline which should not carry crude in a normal instance.
“And we have seen that this line flow all the way parallel to the two other active Trans Escravos pipelines. And this is a good revelation.
“That is why the Chief of Defence Staff has said very clearly that an extensive investigation will be conducted. Anyone involved in this matter, either from the host community, community contractors, government security agencies, workers of the oil companies including NNPC and Shell. Anyone that is involved in this will be dealt with by the law.
“We are presently getting massive support from the intervention of the government security agencies notably the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, the NSCDC, etc as we have seen massive campaign in this regard as coordinated by the Chief of Defence Staff. The intervention is really paying off.”
Also speaking, Chief Keston Pondi, the Chief Executive of the newly contracted private security company, Tantita Security Services, said from the look of things, the incident had been on for a very long time.
He said, “To get to this level is not easy. We were hinted on the two illegal attachments that were foiled. We are still escalating. We are combing this line up to Ogidigben to Madaho.
“This particular one inspected by the NNPC CEO team is located at Yokre Flow Station. Only God knows how many more points we are going to see as we go further. As at this moment, we have discovered 15 points so far. The identified 15 points were attached to the Trans Escravos pipeline at different locations.
“It is obvious that a lot of people are complicit in this illegal oil activities. Whether it is in the security sector, host communities, even in the oil industry, if you know that you have been involved and nobody is doing anything about it, this is the time to evacuate. If you do not stop, the laws that are protecting the oil industry will come very strongly on you.
“Those involved are not unlikely to fight back. But we are not too scared of our people. We are more scared of people with guns that are involved in these activities than people without guns. We are more scared of the GSAs that are accomplict in this, and the oil multinationals than we are scared of our people.
“Tompolo is 100 per cent committed to eradicating this menace of illegal oil theft and refining from the Niger Delta. One of the reasons being that it degrades our environment. It creates health hazards to our people. Another one is that with this kind of contract, we are going to have employment for our teeming youths. And it will greatly increase production in the oil industry.”