STILL ON OIL THIEVES

Gotten from Vanguardngr
BY GODWIN ETAKIBUEBU

THE last time this topic was discussed, we established the fact that there are two categories of oil thieves in Nigeria – those in government, acting in official capacity and those outside government. We were able to identify those in government and the quantity of product they steal from the Nigerian people  daily. One pointed out that there is an official daily allocation of 450,000 barrel of crude oil [expected to be refined] allocated for local consumption for the Nigerian market.

This allocation is taken away daily by the NNPC and its subsidiaries but nothingby way of revenue to government coffers, either as finished product of PMS or cash. The conclusion therefore is that, is a colossal sum of US$12,975,750,000 – representing annual sales of the 450,000 barrels at 2013 budget estimate of US$79 per barrel was  stolen. And this has been on for as many years as we can count. This is what is stolen by the first category of the Nigerian oil thieves.

Let us find the second category of the oil thieves. This category is a little difficult to track because the thieves in this category do not operate from one location like those in the  first category which is  at the NNPC. These thieves are scattered all over the land, highly placed personalities who can acquire vessels [motor tankers], keep security agencies at sea in their pay-roll, can “even command those security agencies securing our oil to escort their ships to the safety of international waters from both the loading platforms and the creeks” and with enough power to turn “day to night and night to day”.