The federal government has blamed the international community for the unabated spate of oil theft, saying that beneficiaries of the deal within he international oil cartel have failed of halt the practice.
Speaking in Abuja last week, the minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Odien Ajumogobia described the attitude of aiding the boom of illegal oil market as very unfortunate
Decrying the poor response to appeal for a stop to the practice and arguing that if there are no buyers, the illegality will stop , he said: "I don’t think that there has been very much positive response. I think one way of dealing with the issue is for you to close the market where it is being sold, then the crime will stop as people are stealing the oil to sell it in the market."
Decrying the poor response to appeal for a stop to the practice and arguing that if there are no buyers, the illegality will stop , he said: "I don’t think that there has been very much positive response. I think one way of dealing with the issue is for you to close the market where it is being sold, then the crime will stop as people are stealing the oil to sell it in the market."
"I think it is something we can and should look at. I think more importantly, is the fact that they can steal crude oil and take it out of Nigeria secretly because you have to carry this thing over open water.
“The vessels that come in berth several kilometres offshore, you have to take this crude in smaller boats across open water and offload into a big tanker. They come back and take more and continue to do so until you fill a tanker up to a million barrels and the tanker sails.
"This can’t be done secretly. I think the responsibility lies on our security agents to curb this practice while we also engage the market where it is going. Technology also allows you to follow the tanker.
"You can see the barges as they are going in the open water with satellite image as they are offloading, as the tanker is sailing and see where the tanker ends up. We are in the 21st century and this is 18th and 19th century crime”, he stressed.
“The vessels that come in berth several kilometres offshore, you have to take this crude in smaller boats across open water and offload into a big tanker. They come back and take more and continue to do so until you fill a tanker up to a million barrels and the tanker sails.
"This can’t be done secretly. I think the responsibility lies on our security agents to curb this practice while we also engage the market where it is going. Technology also allows you to follow the tanker.
"You can see the barges as they are going in the open water with satellite image as they are offloading, as the tanker is sailing and see where the tanker ends up. We are in the 21st century and this is 18th and 19th century crime”, he stressed.
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