Business
Ojulari highlights continental dimension of crude oil theft in Africa

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Ojulari, has revealed that crude oil theft in Africa is a continental and international issue that required a collaborative effort to combat.
Ojulari disclosed this at the Africa Chief of Defence Staff Conference on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, saying specialized international and continental gangs take advantage of security gaps to steal crude oil across Africa.
He also emphasised that crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism were not localised occurrences but rather involve complex networks of international syndicates.
According to him, “The importance of collaboration and synergy among military formations across Africa to tackle crude oil theft, because security formed a critical pillar of the energy business and plays a strategic role in achieving national, regional, and continental energy security goals.”
The NNPCL boss highlighted the progress made in combating crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, just as he attributed the success to the efforts of security agencies and intelligence agencies, which have improved pipeline availability and crude oil receipt.
“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,” he said.
Ojulari said as the head of the largest national oil company on the continent, “we have seen the benefit of the collaboration within the energy space, with significant improvement in our operating environment.
The dilapidating impact of crude theft, low pipeline availability and attacks are issues that have become stories of the past for us.
“These have come from the immense and intentional efforts of our government agencies across the nation and, in particular, within the Niger Delta.
“Today, I can proudly report to you all that our pipelines and terminals’ receipt of crude oil, which was somewhere as low as 20 per cent to 30 per cent.
”We are attaining close to 100 per cent due to the support of the security forces and the intelligence agencies, ” he said.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, urged his colleagues across Africa to invest in modern technology like artificial intelligence (AI), to defeat monstrous terrorist groups, including Boko Haram, ISWAP, Al-Qaeda, and Al-Shabaab, wreaking havoc in parts of the continent.
He said security threats have evolved across the continent, hence the need for a digital solution to defeat some of the “invisible” enemies threatening the territorial integrity of nations in Africa.
General Musa said, “The battlefield is evolving, the threats of today are no longer confined to conventional warfare; they are digital, asymmetric and often invisible – the enemy is within.
“As chiefs of defence staff and heads of our Armed Forces, we must lead the charge in organising our forces, investing in cyber-defence, artificial intelligence and indigenous military technology, without which it will be difficult to achieve our security.”