GELEGELE community in Ovia North East Council in Edo State has raised the alarm that led to the discovery of illegal bunkering activities at Dubri Oil’s OML 96.

It was gathered that the company discovered illegal tapping after it noticed a sudden decline in its daily production and then carried out an investigation with information from the community.

A staff member of the company, who does not want his name mentioned since he is not authorised to speak for the company, said: “About four days ago, we noticed a drastic decline in our production and we tried to troubleshoot from our flow station and our manifold to see whether there is any technical issue that should cause this decline.

“But all efforts to get what was going on were unsuccessful and we kept on searching until we got some informants in the community who are loyal to the company. The informant told us they have information that people came to tap from our crude oil through the flow lines.

“When we got the information, we quickly swung into action to see the lines. We excavated it and saw it from one of our wells, GGNorth 1, to the flow station and we discovered that nothing was wrong with the lines. We think they made an attempt earlier on the line and found out it was not a suitable place to tap.”

He said they covered it up and moved forward towards the Gelegele community.

“Today, the well has been diverted from where they tapped from to the other header. We cannot quantify how long this has been taking place. However, our production has been declining for the past three months but the drastic decline happened this week and that is what called for this investigation.