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Africcon Blogspot Report: Tompolo, Ateke Tom’s Pipeline Contracts Against Global Practice - Experts
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Covered By Africcon blogspot Media – Tompolo, Ateke Tom’s Pipeline Contracts Against Global Practice - Experts
From Africcon blogspot MediaThe process followed by the federal government in the award of contracts for the protection of the country’s oil pipelines to ex-militants in the Niger Delta region, including Tompolo, Ateke Tom and others, has been faulted by experts who insist that the action contravenes global practice.
The experts argued that the process is questionable, just as the contract has failed to deliver the desired result. Crude and product theft remains on the rise with an estimated 6 million barrels stolen monthly.
Speaking exclusively to
Africcon Blogspot yesterday, an industry expert who is very familiar with the issues but sought anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter explained that the pipelines, being strategic assets, ought to be conventionally outsourced by government to competent companies for protection, where it feels it is not capable of protecting them.
According to him, the global practice is that the owner of the assets works out the safety and security needs assessment of the infrastructure using a consultant, and, where need be, contract a third party to protect the assets if it becomes obvious that it cannot protect it.
He, however, stressed that such services are usually contracted to the best companies after advertisements specifying which artery of the network is prone to vandals that needs protection.
“The advantage of the advertisement is that you will get the best company to do the protection where you know you don’t have the capacity to do it,” the expert explained.
He added that the manner in which the contract is being handed over to the ex-militants under the table, rather than over the table, sends the wrong signals to the international community about Nigeria’s commitment to the principles of extractive industry transparency, which the country is a signatory to.
“Whatever we are doing in the extractive industry, we should outsource it so that the international community can see us to be transparent and committed to the principles of extractive industry transparency which we have signed up to. These are public assets, we can’t just contract them out to individuals under the table,” he said.
For her part, Nigeria’s representative on the board of the global Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), Faith Nwadishi, expressed the worry that despite the contract awarded to the ex-militants and money paid to the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) for the protection of the assets, no visible result could be seen.
Nwadishi, who explained that the decision to award the contract to the ex-militants was borne out of the need to involve host communities in the protection of the assets, however, wondered whether there will be any guarantee of a tangible result, if the contract was to be awarded through a transparent bidding process.
“The question to be asked is: what has changed since ex-militants were paid this money? Why are we not getting results? Is the money meant for jamboree,” Nwadishi, who is also the country director of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Nigeria, queried.
She regretted that about 6 million barrels of crude oil are lost monthly, stressing that if the country is spending this kind of money, it should get results; otherwise, it’s a wasted effort.
The cost of the expired pipeline protection contract awarded to the ex-militants is put at N5.6 billion. A breakdown shows that Mujaheed Dokubo-Asari got $9 million, Ebikabowei “Boyloaf” Victor Ben and Ateke Tom, each got $3.8 million, while Government “Tompolo” Ekpumopolo got the largest share of $22.9 million.
Nwadishi, who called for a reassessment of the role of communities in the process, added: “So the money we are paying to the ex-militants… are they paying it to them to acquire their ships and enlarge their cabal?”
She pointed out that the local content law in the oil and gas industry is not being strictly enforced, explaining that there are provisions in the law which require companies to have liaison officers in every host community.
“But the oil companies are not abiding by it; the liaison officers are supposed to constantly be enlightening the communities, because there are some of them who ignorantly indulge in pipeline vandalism only because they feel it is their property as it is in their backyards,” Nwadishi explained.
She also fingered the JTF, noting that there are allegations that some members of the JTF escort people to steal oil and vandalise the pipelines, adding “we need a massive reassessment and re-orientation”.
Africcon Blogspot gathered that the expired contract was for the protection of the Warri-Oben-Suleja-Kaduna pipeline artery which conveys kerosene, petrol and diesel as well as the Excravos-Warri-Kaduna pipeline artery which is a multipurpose pipeline that conveys both crude and products.
Reps summon security chiefs, oil coy heads
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives yesterday summoned security chiefs and heads of oil corporations in the country to a meeting where the issue of incessant theft of crude oil will be addressed.
The lawmakers asked the federal government to prosecute oil thieves and investigate allegations made by the director -general of NIMASA, Dr Patrick Akpobolekemi, that influential people are involved in oil theft and report back within two weeks while an ad-hoc committee looks into the propriety of contracting the protection of waterways and oil pipelines to private firms.
Similarly, they resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee that would ensure compliance on automated metering system on oil wells, flow heads and export terminals for the purpose of having accurate data on all processes. It is to produce its report at the end of January next year.
For the amnesty programme to function optimally, they continued, the federal government should remove middlemen between government and beneficiaries by dealing directly with the ex-militants and overhaul the modus operandi of the Joint Task Force (JTF) to make it more proactive and dynamic in securing oil installations.
The lawmakers took these decisions after adopting the resolution of a motion moved by Hon. Aliyu Madaki on the “clear and present danger of incessant, brazen and unbridled theft of crude oil” in Nigeria.
Leading debate on the motion, Madaki put the figure of stolen crude oil at an estimated 300, 000 barrels per day, translating to 67 per cent of the country’s domestic consumption of 445,000 barrels per day.
He recalled that the federal government had, in an attempt aimed at boosting oil revenue, awarded pipeline surveillance contract to protect the nation’s waterways but, despite that, as much as 400,000 barrels of crude oil is still stolen per day as disclosed by the minister of finance who also said it led to a 17 per cent fall in official sales of crude oil in the international market.
He also regretted that the engagement of a private firm to man the waterways has worsened the level of oil theft, while the “amnesty programme which was conceived around paying the warlords to settle their boys every month” has created a set of people who don’t pay the foot soldiers their full money, thus getting them restive and frustrated.
Commending the effort of Ambassador Patrick Dele-Cole, who leads a campaign group targeted at G8 leaders called “Stop the Theft”, he called for the establishment of an intergovernmental working group to discuss how to investigate the global trade in stolen Nigerian crude oil from the point of ships used to transport it to money used to pay for it.
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