Navy apprehends 35 illegal oil vessels – Nava chief

The Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Emmanuel Ogalla, says the Nigerian Navy apprehended more than 35 ships involved in oil theft in the nation’s waters.

Mr Ogalla, a vice admiral, who made this known during a meeting of maritime stakeholders on Tuesday in Abuja, said the apprehended vessels were handed over to the appropriate prosecuting authorities.

He said that the navy had rejigged its operations and established Operation Delta Sanity in January and sustained its maritime security operations through surveillance, response capability and law enforcement in addition to collaboration with all maritime stakeholders.

The CNS assured the stakeholders of the navy’s commitment to the fulfilment of its statutory roles with a view to emplace a conducive maritime domain for the economic prosperity of the nation.

He said the navy was working to ensure that its operations do not constitute obstacles to the operators but rather contribute to them being able to perform their duties and produce optimally.

“Provision of security is part of ways of increasing promoting ease of doing business, because if there is no security, the operators cannot operate.

“Also ensuring that our arrests and detentions do not impede on the legitimate business operators, we ensure that when we make arrests.

“We quickly carry out preliminary investigation and if it was based on wrong information, we quickly release those vessels so that we do not impede businesses.

“We feel that we can promote ease of doing business by ensuring that our operations do not end up constituting problems to the operators.

“Rather, we should support them by giving them the assurance and the confidence that they are well protected from the criminal elements who are always keen towards disrupting businesses in Nigeria,” he said.

Mr Ogalla said the meeting was convened to bring together industry regulators, maritime law enforcement as well as industry players to discuss critical issues which are germane to maritime and energy security.

He said the development of Nigeria’s oil sectors over the last few decades had witnessed several complex security challenges, such as violent agitations, oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and piracy/sea robbery, amongst others.

The naval chief said the menace was driven by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, communal clashes, poverty and unemployment.

He added that traditional means of addressing the security challenges had not yielded the desired result hence the need to address emerging security issues arising from implementing the Petroleum Industry Act.

According to him, the Federal Government’s drive to develop the nation’s Blue Economy requires the support of all stakeholders, adding that President Bola Tinubu had expressed a desire to enhance the ease of doing business within the maritime environment as well as the oil and gas sector.

The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, said the country now records 1.6 million barrels of crude oil production daily.

Mr Kyari, who was represented by the Managing Director Pipeline NNPCL, Folorunsho Karim, assured that crude production would reach the targeted two million barrels per day by year-end, with the support of the navy and other relevant stakeholders.

He commended the efforts and support of the military for making it possible.

“They have been giving us a lot of support, and we’re having a reduction in oil theft, and the pipeline vandalism has also decreased significantly, and a lot is presently going on in the industry.

“We hope that we will sustain this, and we will be able to achieve our target of two million barrels per day toward the end of the year,” he said.

(NAN)