Nigeria has intercepted a vessel loaded with stolen crude oil in the south of the country. A private security firm contracted by the state-owned oil company, NNPC Limited intercepted the vessel heading to neighbouring Cameroon.
The security personnel acted on ''credible intelligence'' to arrest the cargo ship ''owned by a Nigerian registered company, Holab Maritime Services Limited'' the NNPC said in a statement on Monday evening.
The vessel was apprehended with the captain and crew members on board, the authorities said.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many litres of crude oil the vessel was carrying but the NNPC said it had a capacity of 800,000 litres. The owners of the MT TURA vessel have not yet commented publicly.
''Preliminary investigations revealed that the crude oil cargo onboard was illegally sourced from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, Nigeria. There was no valid documentation for the vessel or the crude oil cargo onboard at the time of the arrest,'' NNPC spokesperson Garba Deen Muhammad said.
Huge losses
''Further investigation into the activities of the vessel at the NNPC Ltd. Command and Control Centre also revealed that the Vessel has been operating in stealth mode for the last twelve years,'' Muhammad added.
The Nigerian authorities have ''concluded to destroy the Vessel to serve as a strong warning and deterrent to all those participating in such illegal activities to cease and desist,'' the NNPC said.
Nigeria is Africa's top oil producer with around two million barrels output per day. But crude theft from pipelines and wells in the oil-producing Niger Delta region has affected the country's output in recent years.
Tackling crude oil theft is one of the biggest challenges facing Nigeria's new President Bola Tinubu.
''The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability,'' the state oil company said.
