Yemisi Izuora
An indigenous oil firm, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production, says Nigeria is losing huge revenue arising from large scale illegal oil bunkering.
This it opined prompted youth protests seeking removal of the head of Joint Task Force Commander.
The company, denied involvement in the recent youth agitation and call for the removal of the Commander of Operation Delta Safe, Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman.
Rear Admiral Suleiman had blamed Aiteo and its Chief Executive Benedict Peters for instigating the protests by youths over obvious sabotage of the facility and continuous illegal oil theft despite the presence of the Joint Task Force, JTF.
On June 1,2018, hundreds of youths connected to the Niger Delta region organised a World Press Conference in Abuja to draw public attention to the activities of Rear Admiral Apochi Suleiman in his role as the JTF boss.
The youths accused him of complicity in the growing menace of illegal bunkering and oil thefts and calling for his immediate removal from office.
The company however, regretted that rather than address the key issues and the allegations against him, the JTF commander instead chose to make spurious allegations that the company’s chief executive was behind the protest because of his ownership of the facility.
The company’s management in reaction to this said that Rear Admiral Suleiman’s attempt at diverting attention from himself represents an ill-conceived, reckless and ineffectual response aimed at fabricating a distant alibi to aerate a degenerating sore of a festering personal wound.
“Clearly, the Admiral misguidedly considers that there is some form of wrongdoing around genuine agitation by a people to get protection for their land, property and assets from the vile criminality that oil theft has become. For one who professes to lead a security entity whose principal objective is to engender community safety and protection, this disposition suggests abject insensitivity and a total lack of responsibility, issues presumably at the top of the list of those seeking a change to JTF’s leadership”, Aiteo said.
The company, from information obtained by Oriental News Nigeria, said that it will continue in its determination to execute its mandate as it has enormous responsibilities in the oil industry requiring focused intensity and attention in the execution of our quite considerable commercial obligations.
With a daily production in the region of 90,000 barrels per day production, the company shoulders the huge responsible for producing 5 per cent of the country’s daily oil production, employing over several hundred direct staff and thousands of others indirectly through contractors and service suppliers.
Aiteo stated that this sense of responsibility remains the bedrock on which its commercial and other activities are founded, but regrets that these oil thefts have meant that the company has become one of the biggest victims of oil theft in the country.
The company denied that the Nembe Creek Trunk Line(NCTL) is the property of Benedict Peters, as insinuated by the Rear Admiral but a property of federal government while it operates as partners, holding a minority interest.
“The NCTL is an asset owned by the NNPC/Aiteo Joint Venture in which Aiteo owns 45 per cent and the Nigerian Government owns 55 per cent. There are several other oil majors whose crude is injected and transported by the NCTL, including Belema Oil Producing Limited, Eroton Exploration and Production Company, Newcross Petroleum Limited, and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC). Shutdown of such a strategic public infrastructure due to activities from illegal bunkering has a staggering effect on the commercial fortunes of these companies and a significant impact on the Nigerian economy from the ensuing loss of revenue for government”, Aiteo said.