Crude Oil Theft: Dust over Navy, Tompolo’s Tantita clash

The recent interruption of an ocean-going vessel, MT PRAISEL, by operatives of the Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, TSSNL, in Delta State seems to have exposed the internal bad feeling among security agencies protecting oil facilities in the Niger Delta.

A reliable source, however, disclosed that the in-house contention pre-dated the August 2 interception of the oil tanker, escorted by the Navy personnel, by TSSNL operatives and elements of the Joint Task Force–Operation Delta Safe, OPDS, at Koko, Warri North Local Government Area.

Before the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, engaged TSSNL, and other private security contractors, in its renewed fight against oil thieves, personnel of some of security agencies had openly clashed over operational procedures.

TSSNL, which the NNPCL particularly brought on board because of the mastery of Niger Delta creeks by its chair, ex-militant leader, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, also appears to have stepped on powerful toes because of its daring mode of operation.

“The TSSNL has the backing of President Bola Tinubu; his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who contracted the firm; National Security Adviser, NSA; NNPCL, and heads of nation’s security agencies”, the Sunday Vanguard source said.

In-house disagreement

”However, down the line, in the field, some top officials of the security agencies think TSSNL is going too far with its operations and has created the impression that the conventional security agencies were not working.

“Tantita proved its resourcefulness barely a month after NNPCL contracted it, last year, providing crucial intelligence, and exposing illegal pipelines connected to the nation’s crude oil trunk lines, in Delta, Bayelsa, and other states, which the security agencies did not detect for over a decade.

“The company uncovered a floating illegal loading depot attached to the nation’s export trunk lines and caught many vessels on the spot while stealing crude oil, in the last few months.

“About two months ago, it intercepted a suspected crude oil bunkering vessel, MT TURA II, in Ondo State and later set ablaze.

“Acting on intelligence, its operatives trailed MT TURA II and its crew to a point where it was illegally loading crude oil from an abandoned wellhead, but before they got there, officials of a security agency taken into confidence regarding the swoop had tipped off the oil cabal.

“The crew sailed out of the location before they arrived, but they tracked the fleeing crew members and intercepted them with 150,000 metric tons of crude oil worth $86.8m.

“Some top security officials feel that TSSNL and other private security contractors had no authority to intercept vessels with suspected stolen crude oil but monitor and provide intelligence to the security agencies to carry out an arrest.

“They appear to forget so effortlessly that Tompolo, as a technical partner to the Global West Vessel, which worked with NIMASA to combat oil thieves in the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, acquired the technology to track oil thieves, which it deployed to the nation’s advantage.

“Tantita also has the same technology presently, so why do they think it is wrong to use it at a time like this? The machinery is behind TSSNL huge success in recent times”.

Crude oil bunkering cabals take pleasure in the division, rancor, and misunderstanding among the security outfits because they carrot their way into the illegal business under such situations.

Highly placed Nigerians, including retired and serving security officials, and oil industry professionals, who own illegal refineries in the creeks, are part of the oil cabals.

They use their calculated positions to steal crude oil and provide a protection racket for oil thieves.
Unfortunately, the controversy over whether private security contractors could intercept and arrest oil thieves was yet unresolved when the MT PRAISEL affair broke out on August 2.

Though private security contractors maintained that if a citizen could interrupt a wrongdoer and alert security agencies, there was nothing wrong in them intercepting oil thieves on the waterways and handing them over to the security agencies for prosecution.

Navy’s rage

TSSNL, acting on intelligence, yet again, interrupted another ocean-going vessel, MT PRAISEL, on Friday, August 2, 2023, at Koko in Warri North Local Government Area, Delta State.

The news of the latest interruption, especially with naval personnel escorting MT PRAISEL, flooded the media, the same day, and days after.

The Nigerian Navy, NN, evidently the pilot agency in the battle against maritime offenses, felt discomfited by media reports linking its officials to a suspected crime.

Sunday Vanguard learned that it incensed the Navy because its reputation came under question with media reports, just as it frowned at Tantita purportedly escalating the interception of MT PRAISEL to the NSA and Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, without fully exhausting the in-house process.
It responded like a wounded lion, with the Director of Information, Naval Headquarters, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, outlining its embarrassment, in two separate statements.

Showing its unhappiness with the manner TSSNL operatives approached the vessel under its control, the Navy, in one of the statements, took Tantita to the cleaners.

‘HPFO, not crude oil’

Ayo-Vaughan, who announced the result of the laboratory analysis of the product onboard MT PRAISEL, said the product displayed properties consistent with Nigerian industrial standard specification of HPFO, and not crude oil.

With the Navy’s hard-hitting statements, describing Tantita’s action as “perhaps mischievous”, “high-handed”, “unprofessional”, “totally wrong”, “spontaneous actions from insufficient, and unverified information,” it is palpable that something was amiss.

A firm, Sub-sea Ocean Limited, owners of MT PRAISEL, also came out through its Secretary, Paul Ishabor, to explain that the vessel under a charter party agreement by Stratos Trading Limited was carrying out legitimate business, and not laden with stolen crude oil.

JTF comes to judgment

The Commander of JTF, OPDS, Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, who ordered the immediate release of MT PRAISEL told reporters, last Sunday, that NMDPRA granted the vessel approval to load 1,114,721L of High Pour Fuel Oil (HPFO) from Greenmac Energy Storage at Tarus Jetty Koko from 26 July – 8 Aug. 2023.

“This approval was subsequently amplified by the Nigerian Navy for compliance. Accordingly, in line with extant procedures, Nigerian Navy personnel were deployed on board MT PRAISEL to monitor the vessel’s loading and discharge to ensure strict compliance with the approval by NMDPRA and the Nigerian Navy” Ferreira said.

“However, on August 2, 2023, Tantita Security Services Ltd (reportedly acting on intelligence), suspected the vessel to be laden with crude oil and approached an element of OPDS to accompany their operatives to board the vessel to confirm the product on board.

“It is pertinent to note that Tantita and other pipeline surveillance companies do not embark on independent operations. The operations are conducted in conjunction with OPDS units, and troops based on intelligence provided by sources.

“Subsequently, the vessel was taken to Escravos Anchorage in the early hours of August 3, 2023, for verification of the product on board, and other investigations due to the weighty suspicion and zero tolerance for Crude Oil Theft (COT) by the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

‘Private security contractors unauthorized to intercept vessels’
“It was also necessary to display transparency and synergy in any investigation bordering on COT.

“Accordingly, it is necessary to clarify that pipeline surveillance contractors, including Tantita, are only to provide credible intelligence to the OPDS elements working with them, and are not permitted to independently carry out operations to intercept or arrest any vessel.

“It is noteworthy that in this case, Tantita did not intercept or arrest MT PRAISEL, but the vessel was directed to proceed to Anchorage for investigation.”

The JTF Commander stated further that on August 3 and 4, 2023, the Nigerian Navy, Tantita, and the NMDPRA, which is the regulatory authority on matters relating to mid, and downstream petroleum products in Nigeria, took samples of the product for tests.

“This is also in line with the harmonized Standard Operating Procedures on the arrest, detention, and prosecution of vessels and persons in Nigeria’s Maritime Environment 2016.

“The result of the test has been received and confirmed the product on board MT PRAISEL to be HPFO, as approved by NMDPRA, and not crude oil as suspected.

“I have with me here a copy of the test result and certificate of quality from NMDPRA, confirming the product on board MT PRAISEL to be consistent with Nigerian Industrial Standard Specification for HPFO”.