Ship burning: Oil industry outraged at NNPC

• Holab shutters website erases online data

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has been denounced for its hasty destruction of a vessel caught with crude oil cargo suspected to be stolen from some of the country’s production sites in the southwest of the country.

Meanwhile The Oracle Today reports that while the national oil company is singing about destroying vessel and its cargo, Holab Maritime Services Limited which operated the thieving MT TURA is busy wiping its data from the internet, disabling its websites and linked online platforms, and also pulling its telephones lines from the grid.

But industry analysts are also following the games and the intrigues. The NNPC declared that MT TURA had operated illegal crude oil export for 12 years before it was caught by Tantita Security Services. And whereas the crew members of the vessel were arrested, industry pundits are suspicious of the haste by the government in destroying the vessel and its cargo which are considered to be critical exhibits.

While suspicion continues to mount on what makes the burning of the vessel compelling, the action suffers other criticisms.

From pollution arising from the burning ship, the economic losses associated with the marine asset destruction and the financial loss related to the burning of the oil; those who spoke to The Oracle Today described the national oil company’s handling of the arrested vessel and its cargo as unprofessional, environmentally rascally, uneconomic and disruptive to ongoing investigations into the matter.

One of them opined that the hasty burning of the ship ahead of prosecution of the ship’s crew men would amount to destruction of the key exhibits required for prosecution “if any will happen.”

Industry players who shared informal discussions on the burning of the Nigerian flagged MT TURA, which was caught with some 5000 barrels of undocumented crude oil cargo, said the measures were totally unprofessional both in industry practice and crime investigation.

Our sources declined to be mentioned in this report since they did not clear with their respective companies to speak to the press.

A senior official of an independent exploration and production company whose company is seriously impacted by crude stealing in the Niger Delta lamented the action of the national oil company as disruptive and preemptive to normal course of crime investigation which, according to him, should have been left for the security agencies, including the DSS.

The Oracle Today reports that security contractors working for the NNPC Limited had caught a vessel with a cargo of some 5032 barrels of crude oil worth about $403,000. The national oil company stated that the crude oil shipment which was headed to Cameroun was not captured in any government transaction documentation.

It would be recalled that domestic fuel market has not been developed to accommodate trade on wellhead petroleum liquids including crude oil, condensate and natural gas liquids due to complete absence of functional independent refinery operators in the country. Thus crude oil trade is transacted under the watch of government agencies which must authorize offtake of cleared cargoes at the export terminals.

Thieves and mineral rights activists run parallel export routes by tapping the commodity from the production flow lines operated by oil companies; leading the deep environmental pollution, commercial losses, facility vandalism and operating cost escalation.

Country Chair of Shell in Nigeria, Mr Osagie Okunbor, says at all times that thieves are responsible for pollution in his company’s operating environment. NNPC says that thieves were responsible for low oil income for the country, and operating companies also blame thieves for commercial losses and protracted downtimes.

Catching the thieves said to be running large scale oil theft in the country for over 30 years has remained unattainable for NNPC, its contractors, Nigerian security agencies and the operators. And it appears that the highly suspected thieves are currently the closest friends of government and its industry regulators.

The leader of the Niger Delta Peoples Volunteer Force (NDPVF), Mr Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari, had during a visit to President Bola Tinubu accused the Nigerian military of being the oil thieves. The military, especially the Army, has since denied the allegation as unfounded.

Thus, the capture of MT TURA is seen as golden opportunity for the industry and its overseers to dig into the roots of the current case. And industry analysts strongly believe that destruction of the vessel and its cargo ahead of concluding investigation and prosecution of arrested suspects is very suspicious.

The case of MT TURA would be just one in many of such cases where oil thieves are caught but only vessels or evidence are destroyed.

Some players and oil workers who shared private opinions on the way the national oil company handled the apprehended oil thieves in recent times pointed at attempts to cover up the promoters of the crime instead of bringing them to book.

“Exhibits are critical tools for evidence when you are prosecuting a criminal case. Destroying them amounts to protecting the culpable,” an industry lawyer said in an informal chat, adding that “confiscation of crime instruments would mean that they are in the custody of the accuser for effective prosecution of the accused.”

Besides the compelling goal to use the recovered assets to track and mop of the full syndicate mob for prosecution, our sources describe the burning of the vessel and its contents as brainless.

“How do you catch a thief with your stolen wares, and all you do is arrest the thief and burn his vehicle along with your wares?” the lawyer said. He said the action of the national oil company translates to huge financial loss to the country and the commercial players that invested in the production of the stolen oil.

“The just made the loss permanent for the operating companies,” he argued, describing it as inflicting the private players with public sector inefficiency.

Checks by The Oracle Today showed that while the burning drama took attention, the company that operated MT TURA was busy erasing its corporate profile from the internet, disabling its website and all telephone numbers linked to the company.

Whereas NNPC stated the MT TURA operated in the shadow for over 12 years, The Oracle Today gleaned some of the fast disappearing tracking data on the vessel which tanker trackers said just returned from Tema in Ghana.

Spokesman of the NNPC, Garba Deen Muhammad, identified the vessel as Nigerian flagged MT TURA owned by Holab Maritime Services Limited with Registration Number RC813311.

Our dig into Holab Maritime Services Limited located at No. 13A, Marine Road, Apapa, Lagos State, is ongoing; and initial findings show that the company has promptly pulled down its websites and erased all online data about its operations.

 However, data related to tracking services offered by Nigerian based Fieldbase Services Limited showed that Tanker MT TURA has been traversing ports on the Niger Delta and Gulf of Guinea coasts. Last tracking data showed that the vessel had returned from Tema in Ghana before it was caught by Tantita Security Services operated by Government Ekpumopolo also called Tompolo.