The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), Bashir Ojulari, has said crude oil theft across Africa is fuelled by highly organised international and continental gangs exploiting security loopholes.
Ojulari made the revelation on Monday at the opening of the Africa Chiefs of Defence Staff Conference in Abuja, where he stressed that the crime has gone beyond local actors and requires robust cross-border collaboration to combat.
“Crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence,” he said. “These operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture to conduct illegal activities.”
The NNPC chief noted that while oil theft and pipeline vandalism have historically plagued Nigeria’s Niger Delta, recent coordinated efforts by security agencies have yielded significant improvements in curbing the menace.
He emphasised the centrality of security in energy production, saying, “Security forms a key pillar of the energy business and therefore plays a very important and strategic role in achieving national, regional, and continental energy security goals.”
Ojulari added that, as the head of Africa’s largest national oil company, he has witnessed first-hand the gains of collaboration within the energy space, pointing to a marked improvement in NNPC’s operating environment in recent years.
The warning comes amid heightened efforts by African governments and defence agencies to secure vital energy infrastructure, protect national revenue, and stabilise the region’s economic future.
