The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Chief Executive Officer, Bashir Ojulari, has disclosed that crude oil theft across Africa is orchestrated by sophisticated international and continental syndicates.
Speaking at the opening of the Africa Chief of Defence Staff Conference in Abuja on Monday, he stressed that the crime exploits existing lapses in state and regional security systems.
Ojulari explained that crude theft is not a localised occurrence but a highly coordinated operation requiring cross-border collaboration to effectively combat. He stated, “Crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence; rather, these operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture.”
According to him, pipeline vandalism and illegal oil activities in Nigeria’s Niger Delta have persisted for years, though security interventions have reduced their scale. He stressed that security remains a “key pillar of the energy business” and plays a critical role in safeguarding national, regional, and continental energy security goals.
Ojulari emphasized that NNPCL, as Africa’s largest national oil company, has witnessed the benefits of collaboration within the energy sector. He noted that these partnerships have delivered significant improvements in the operating environment, reinforcing the need for deeper regional cooperation against oil theft.
