Claims over progress in the fight against oil theft in Nigeria have come under criticism from environmental and legal experts who argue that the government’s actions remain cosmetic and fail to address the deeper crisis of systemic corruption, environmental degradation, and lack of accountability.
Responding to the recent announcement that over 40,000 barrels of stolen crude oil were recovered and several illegal refineries dismantled, Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey, dismissed the development as “mere bandages on a festering wound”.
“The illegal refineries deactivated are often soon reinstalled or relocated,” Bassey said.
“Suspected oil thieves are arrested, but we hardly hear of big oil thieves convicted in court. Recovering 40,000 barrels is equivalent to what the oil companies sometimes register in just one oil spill, such as happened at the Bonga FPSO in 2011.”
Bassey further questioned the sincerity of efforts to combat oil theft, citing the scale and sophistication of the operations.
“It is common knowledge that oil theft is carried out in ocean-going vessels. These cannot operate in Nigerian waters undetected. Can they? Is it rocket science to track where those vessels come from and where they take the stolen crude?”
He also condemned the NNPCL’s apparent disregard for environmental consequences, pointing to the ongoing inferno at Ororo-1 oil well off the coast of Awoye in Ondo State.
“The NNPCL has been watching it burn and spill for five years now. Security forces are watching and protecting that oil well inferno. The volume of oil being burnt there dwarfs whatever record is being presented as achievements.”
The environmentalist stressed that without genuine ecological responsibility, NNPCL’s operations would remain compromised.
“As long as the NNPCL has its tentacles in the regulatory architecture, is seen as a cash cow, and is ready to sacrifice the environment, it is hard to see how they can operate differently.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Abuja-based energy lawyer, Madaki Ameh, described NNPCL as “wasteful, opaque, and ineptly managed”.
“Pipeline and oil and gas facilities security should be effectively left to the security agencies who are trained and should be adequately motivated to carry out their constitutional duties.
“Handing over oil and gas facilities to private companies, as NNPCL has done for some time, is wasteful and a drainpipe which fuels the cesspool of corruption. No enduring results can emanate from it,” Ameh said.
Both experts called for deeper structural reforms and greater transparency within the petroleum sector, warning that without addressing the root causes, including regulatory capture, environmental impunity, and the lack of judicial accountability, current efforts will remain ineffective.
