Tantita Security Services Limited, which is the private security outfit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd has intercepted a massive vessel carrying barrels of stolen crude oil in Escravos area of Delta state.
The vessel was said to have been intercepted last Friday while trying to escape with illegal crude oil from the creeks of the Niger Delta creeks.
This discovery is the latest in the series of disturbing findings that the NNPC’s Private Security Contractors have recently reported.
In May, the NNPC recorded another major breakthrough in it’s fight against crude oil thieves, with the interception of trucks and the discovery of a depot used in stealing crude oil in Nigeria.
On October 6 last year, THE WHISTLER had reported how operatives of Tantita Security laid ambush to a suspected oil syndicate, and apprehended the captain and seven other crew members.
The arrest was made while the criminals were pumping crude oil from an illegal connection which they had fixed to a Chevron pipeline in the Warri River.
One week later, another illegal oil pipeline was uncovered which was used by criminals to steal crude oil from Forcados Terminal in Delta State.
The illegal pipeline was located in Okuntu Community which is a few metres away from the Forcados crude oil export terminal
The illegal 6 inch pipeline was connected to the 48 inch Trans Forcados Export Pipeline connecting the high sea where crude oil is being loaded into vessels.
It was connected with the primary intention to steal crude oil from the main pipeline operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company and Agip.
The distance from where the illegal pipeline was connected and where it was being used to load stolen crude oil into the ship is between five to six kilometers.
So far, Tantita Security Services working in collaboration with NNPC has discovered over 60 illegal connections to the trans-Escravos, trans-Forcados, and other major trunk lines by oil bunkers in Delta and Bayelsa states.
