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Barely a month after seizing a suspicious vessel with a cargo of 800,000 litres of stolen crude oil, Tantita Safety Providers, a personal safety contractor of the Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm (NNPC) Restricted, has intercepted one other vessel loaded with crude oil suspected to be stolen, BusinessDay can report.
The 1,117 tons vessel carrying about 8,100 barrels of crude was intercepted on Wednesday, August 3, 2023, within the Koko space of Delta State by the Tanita Safety Providers.
In keeping with experiences, the vessel, MT PRAISEL, was being escorted by some naval officers.
Tanita Safety is a personal safety agency managed by Authorities Ekpemupolo, often known as Tompolo, an ex-Niger Delta agitator.
Personnels of the Safety outfit declare the vessel was flying a Togolese flag and was being escorted by a Navy boat led by a senior naval captain.
In keeping with the Tanita operators, they encountered opposition from the navy boat escorting the vessel, and the naval captain vowed to cope with them decisively. Nonetheless, the personal operators acknowledged that they might not again down.
They finally contacted Nuhu Ribadu, Nationwide Safety Adviser and Emmanuel Ogalla, Chief of Naval Employees, who gave them permission to go to the vessel.
The safety firm claims that upon getting into the ship, they seen that the vessel was authorised to hold merchandise by the navy however didn’t have any approvals from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, the authority chargeable for the regulation of Nigeria’s midstream and downstream petroleum operations, for this voyage.
The incident got here on the heels of the Federal Authorities’s declare that the unlawful sale of stolen crude oil prices Nigeria N2.3 trillion in financial losses in a yr.
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Final month, Tantita Safety Providers intercepted a suspicious vessel with a cargo of 800,000 litres of crude oil on board on July 7, 2023.
Preliminary investigations, based on the NNPC, revealed that the crude oil cargo onboard was illegally sourced from a nicely jacket offshore Ondo State, Nigeria.
“There was no legitimate documentation for the Vessel or the Crude Oil Cargo onboard on the time of the arrest,” NNPC mentioned.
Additional investigation into the actions of the vessel on the NNPC Ltd. Command and Management Centre additionally revealed that the Vessel was working in stealth mode for the final twelve (12) years. The final reported location of the Vessel was Tin Can Port in July 2011.
“Particulars of this arrest and the outcomes of the investigations had been escalated to the suitable Authorities authorities, upon which it was concluded to destroy the Vessel to function a powerful warning and deterrent to all these taking part in such unlawful actions to stop and desist.
“Destroying vessels concerned in transporting stolen crude oil is of paramount significance as a powerful deterrent. The unlawful commerce of stolen crude oil not solely inflicts vital financial losses on Nigeria and legit stakeholders within the oil trade, but additionally perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability,” the corporate mentioned.
The NNPC assures Nigerians that it’s going to maintain the momentum within the struggle towards crude oil theft till it is dropped at a halt.
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