The Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, (TSSNL), a surveillance oil company, on Saturday discovered another huge illegal pipeline connected to the 48-inch Trans Forcados Export Trunk line, at the rear of a military security post in Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State.
The company is operated by a former commandant of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo.
It was alleged that oil companies, oil bunkers, and security officials steal crude using the illicit pipeline connected to the trunk line through an abandoned pipeline by the Nigerians Agip Oil Company Limited, NAOCL, and linked to a location in the high sea, where they load crude oil into vessels and sell overseas.
Officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, led by the General Manager, Joint Venture Operations of National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Zakariya Buduwara, visited the site of the newly uncovered illegal crude oil pipelines.
It was learnt that the perpetrators of the oil theft had tapped into Shell’s 48-inch export line from where crude was illegally siphoned into waiting vessels, ready for shipment.