Illegal oil bunkering in Rivers worries Shell, council boss

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) and the Ikwere Local Government Area have expressed worries over the increasing activities of oil thieves at the Ogbodo community in the Isiokpo area of the council.

Disturbed by the development, a delegation of the SPDC paid a visit to the Executive Chairman, Ikwere Local Government Area, Samuel Nwanosike, to find a lasting solution to the activities of the oil thieves.

Nwanosike in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Chris Omodu, urged SPDC to cut off all illegal lines constructed by oil thieves in Isiokpo and create military checkpoints at the spots to end the ongoing illegal bunkering in the area.

The SPDC delegation was accompanied by the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).

Addressing the delegation, Nwanosike said: “As far as we are concerned, this visit will mean well for us as a people if after your visit you shut down the mainline and cut off all those illegal lines attached to your mainline and create military checkpoint in that spot.

“Once you do that, it is going to be a win-win situation for both the community and the SPDC because you are losing revenue from the crude they are stealing and the inconvenience of the community being on your neck over the devastation of their environment based on the activity will reduce.”

Nwanosike said that his government had taken some actions by destroying the already locally-built illegal refineries with the help of the military, the police, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

READ ALSO: Navy hands over five oil thieves, vessel to EFCC in A’IbomHe said while the council ensured that the illegal activities were nipped in the bud, the oil thieves decided to connect their pipes to pipelines to load the crude oil to other places.

He revealed that there was an inferno at the site of the abandoned illegal refineries when he visited the area with his team.

He said: “Luck ran out on them when we heard information that they were on the spot and we try to visit them at the point in that site. So, they quickly abandoned the site and took to their heels.

“So, crude was just pouring into the river, pouring into the community and all of a sudden fire just came up. So if that fire that came up there was not tamed, it would have been that the entire Ogbodo Community would have been wiped out”.

Speaking on behalf of SPDC, Wobutam Chimezie said they were in the council to follow-up on the assessment of the illegal bunkering site.

On his part, Mr. Alexander Igwegbu, an employee of NOSDRA and government regulator, commended Nwanosike for efforts in tackling illegal bunkering in his council and urged other chairmen to imitate him.