According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, between September 7 and September 13, security personnel discovered 218 instances of oil theft in the Niger Delta.

Additionally, the state-owned oil company disclosed that throughout the review period, 31 people were detained in relation to oil theft.

The NNPC disclosed this in a visual report.

The business reported that four illegal pipelines in Rivers State that were allegedly deceitfully concealed and connected to a crude oil line had been discovered.

“A total of 218 incidences were recorded between September 7 and September 13, 2024, across multiple locations in the Niger Delta region from various incident sources, including government security agencies, Tantita Security Agency, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited, Maton Engineering Nigeria Limited, Oando PLC, and the Command and Control Centres of NNPC Limited.”

The NNPC said that “these pipelines had been syphoning off precious resources from the nation’s coffers.”

There were 48 incidences in deep blue water, 77 in the eastern corridor, 61 in the central corridor, and 32 in the western corridor.

The energy firm stated that during this time, 35 individuals were detained in all. All of them have been turned over to government security services for additional investigation.

Oil theft has historically been cited by NNPCL Group Managing Director Mele Kyari as a primary obstacle to Nigeria’s crude oil output.