A further confirmation of the brazen way that some unscrupulous Nigerian ship owners collaborate to steal the nation’s crude oil came from Accra last weekend when a Nigerian tanker, MT Madina was detained by that country’s security while attempting to discharge allegedly stolen crude oil at the Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited.
A further confirmation of the brazen way that some unscrupulous Nigerian ship owners collaborate to steal the nation’s crude oil came from Accra last weekend when a Nigerian tanker, MT Madina was detained by that country’s security while attempting to discharge allegedly stolen crude oil at the Saltpond Offshore Producing Company Limited.
The owners of the vessel who reportedly alerted security operatives along the west coasts reported that theMadina was supposed to transfer oil from a small field in Nigeria into a larger ship, identified as the MT North Wind Grace, but the captain and crew instead decided to steal the cargo.
Consequently, the owners of the vessel alerted the Benin and Ghana security and subsequently traced the ship to Ghana.
The Ghana Armed Forces said over the weekend that it had detained the MT Madina whilst it was attempting discharge the oil that was stolen from Nigeria.
Colonel M’BawineAtintande, director of public relations at the Ghana Armed Forces, said that the ship was arrested last Thursday after a tipoff from counterparts in Nigeria.
Last week’s arrest further confirms the lead story on yesterday’s edition of Shipping Position Daily which dwelt on the alleged involvement of some Nigerian ship owners’ involvement in theft of the nation’s crude oil and refined petroleum products.
The story, quoting reliable foreign sources had reported yesterday that, oil thieves in Nigeria cart way about 150,000 barrels of crude oil every day. Experts put the average cost at about $16 million or N2.5 billion, calculated at oil price of $105 per barrel and a naira exchange rate of about N160 to a dollar.
According to the experts, oil theft is either carried out by pirates who hijack oil-laden takers or by militants and hoodlums who cut pipelines or use explosives pipes and siphon the oil into waiting ships
To underscore the scam has already warned its members over the oil scams involving the fraudulent sale of Nigerian petroleum products.
The influential International Maritime Bureau (IMB) had also disclosed that Nigerian ship owners (identities withheld) have also been named in some cases where “pirates seize tankers and leave them stationary off the coast, transferring the cargoes to a Nigerian tanker by night”
“These indigenous ships often shuttle between Cotonou and Lagos and the Niger Delta, many of them are permanently on layby, awaiting patronage form unscrupulous owners of stolen oil”, our correspondent was told last week.
But, CEO of Saltpond Offshore Producing Company, Quincy SintimAboagye where the Madina was headed said that the company ensured that the ship was prevented from leaving the facility until officers of the Ghana Navy arrived.
According to the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, one of Ghana’s newly commissioned vessels, the Garinga, made the arrest
The Garinga was commissioned on February 21 together with three other Chinese-built patrol ships, by the president of Ghana, John Atta Mills. The new vessels were procured for combating piracy and increasing maritime security in Ghana’s territorial waters.
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