By Abubakar Yunus Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited said it has destroyed a barge loaded with stolen crude.
The NNPCL in a statement said the barge destruction was carried out in collaboration with private security contractors and government security agencies on Saturday.
A barge refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel used to transport goods or petroleum products on waterways.
The NNPCL noted that the operators of the barge were arrested in December 2022.
“The barge, named MT Brighton 1, which was loaded with stolen crude, was apprehended in one of the creeks running into the Ramos River in Agge Community, a border village between Delta and Bayelsa states,” it said.
The statement added that the security intervention team demolished a filling station, named Blessed Corporate Oil & Gas Services Ltd in Opete, Warri, Delta State, for allegedly being in the custody of trucks laden with stolen crude and discharging the illegal content into its underground storage tanks.
In recent years, Nigeria has recorded a surge in oil theft incidents in its oil-producing region, a development that had worsened the nation’s revenue challenge.
In a bid to curb crude oil theft, the Nigerian government launched an application in August last year to monitor cases of theft.
The NNPC also awarded a multi-billion naira pipeline surveillance contract to a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, Government Tompolo.
