NO doubt, history will not soon forget the dastard explosion that occurred in an illicit crude oil refinery in Abaezi woodland in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State recentlywhich claimed over 100 lives, the first of its kind in the state with such a huge number of casualties. This explosion was facilitated basically by hoodlums who took advantage of the location and the remoteness of the area. Notably, the site of the illicit refinery was located at the middle of the forest in the Abaezi community, a community with a common boundary with Rivers State and an oil rich area.
IT has been reported that in the coastal communities and pipeline areas, oil bunkering is a daily business; it is like a chain business and it is being done by virtually all and sundry including landowners, security operatives and top community leaders. Oil theft and pipeline vandalism refining have long been in existence in Nigeria.
RECORDS have it that 15 cases were recorded in March 2020, all of which were attributed to mainly pipeline vandalism and oil theft. In 2020 alone, over 54 cases of explosion were recorded with 15 cases in March, 19 cases in April, 11 cases in May and nine cases in June respectively. In the year 2020, Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC), with over 600,000 barrels daily output, recorded 39 oil spill cases in the second quarter (April – June) of 2020. Regardless of the fact that this indicated a drop of about 61.5 per cent in comparison with the 63 cases recorded in 2019, the frequency of occurrence calls for concern.
WE understand that the government had on several occasions warned the public against the illegal activities of these oil thieves and had as well put in place several measures to curtail their activities , nevertheless, these oil thieves are persistent in illegal siphoning of the crude thereby denying the federal government the expected revenue accruing to it. This is a huge sabotage of our national resources and an offence against the state.
IF the government will properly prune the sector, we suggest that it must start with the security operatives as it has been established over and over that security personnel are accomplices and that vandalism cannot be successfully carried out without their knowledge and connivance as they are mostly hinted before they perpetrate the act.
THIS accounts for the reason why security officials are mostly not seen at the site of the incident whenever there is occurrence of such.
THIS is a proof to the fact that there is a laxity in the operation of the Nigeria security system, hence, we suggest that any area in which this kind of disaster occurres with no corresponding response from security operatives, heads of such security operatives should be sanctioned.
WE also advise that Federal Government should not renege on its efforts to strengthen the existing legal modular refineries and also intensify efforts on the establishment of more as promised in order to be able to meet up with the new demand most especially now that OPEC had raised Nigeria’s oil production quota from the 1.718 million barrels per day target in March to 1.735 million bpd in April 2022 following the conclusion of the 26th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting held on March 2, 2022 notwithstanding the fact that Nigeria had been missing its oil production quota lately.
NO doubt, this will as well serve as alternative sources of livelihood for artisanal refiners and will as well encourage them to disengage completely from their illegal activities. This could be facilitated by the Federal Government’s collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and other critical stakeholders as illegal refineries have negative environmental effects on residents of the area where sited.
OIL producing states should be the target for the establishment of these new refineries as a pilot scheme to engage artisan refiners.Finally, government should also train the artisanal refiners on environmental management, including skills required for oil spill management/remediation and the National Oil Spill and Response Agency’s annual sensitization campaigns to communities in the oil producing states should also be intensified.
