Oil theft responsible for most crude spills – NOSDRA

Despite the government’s allocation of substantial financial resources to tackle the persistent issue of oil theft, a staggering 2,654 incidents were recorded between 2021 and 2024 as successful oil theft cases, Sunday PUNCH reports.

The figures showed that oil theft cases represent 84 per cent of the primary causes behind the oil spill incidents recorded by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency over the past four years.

These thefts resulted in financial losses, further exacerbating the country’s economic challenges and undermining efforts to secure the nation’s oil infrastructure.

This growing trend highlights the significant contribution of this particular cause to the overall number of spills, emphasising the need for focused attention and preventive measures.

An analysis using the NOSDRA oil spill monitor showed that the spills were reported by oil exploration companies or residents of host communities.

It stated that illegal oil discharge incidents increased from 2021 to 2023 before recording a decrease in 2024. It said 613 spill incidents happened in 2021, leading to an economic wastage of 40,707 barrels at approximately 6.4m litres or 204 full tanker trucks. In the year under review, 472 oil thefts were recorded, indicating 76.9 per cent of the total oil spills for the year.

The tracker recorded that in the following year, oil theft represented 83.5 per cent (665 incidents) of a total of 794 oil spill incidents in 2022. It added that 47,732 barrels, representing 7.54m, were lost.

Oil theft cases further increased in 2023 to 1,046 incidents representing 90 per cent of 1,162 total oil spill cases. Similarly, 18,747 barrels of oil, representing 2.9m litres, got wasted.

In 2024, 19,000 barrels of crude oil were spilled, which was approximately three million litres, and 95 oil tanker trucks full.

One of the spills was categorised as ‘major’. It involves “over 250 barrels spilled into inland waters, or over 2,500 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline, and the open sea.”

Of the 589 spills, 10 were categorised as ‘Medium’, involving “25-250 barrels spilled into inland waters, or 250-2,500 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline, and the open sea.”

285 spills were categorised as ‘Minor’ spills’, involving “up to 25 barrels spilled into inland waters, or 250 barrels spilled on land, swamp, shoreline, and open sea).”

This shows a reduction from the 520 minor oil spills recorded in 2023.

229 of the minor spills were under 10 barrels in size. However, 281 oil spills could not be categorised. Uncategorised spills in 2023 were 608.

It was further stated that 261 of the spills had no estimated quantity of oil spilled provided by the company and in 45 cases, the spill sites were not visited by a Joint Investigation team.

Further analysis showed that the Nigerian Agip Oil Company recorded the highest wastage with 185 spills.

This was followed by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited with reported incidents of 169 spills

NNPC E&P Limited reported 41 spills, Heirs Energies Limited reported 40 spills, and Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited reported 27 spills incidents.

Other companies, including Heritage, reported 25 spills, SEPLAT with 24 spills, OANDO with 21 spills, and CHEVRON with 12 spills.

Nigeria loses billions of dollars to crude oil theft daily, frustrating the country’s daily oil production output.

The illicit activities also lead to oil spills that pollute rivers and farms, threatening the livelihood of farmers and fishermen.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited said it uncovered 55 illegal refineries and 29 illegal pipeline connections in one week across the Niger Delta region.

The operations, which took place between January 11 to 17, 2025, led to the arrest of 30 suspects and the discovery of various illegal oil installations.

The company said it recorded a total of 179 incidents of oil theft in the region.