Security personnel from the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe, in partnership with Tantita Security Services, have set fire to a vessel intercepted in Delta State‘s Escravos area.
The tanker was en route to Cameroon with its unlawful load of barrels of stolen crude oil.
The vessel, MT TURA II (IMO Number:6620462) with Registration Number RC 813311, was caught at an offshore area and is apparently owned by Holab Maritime Services Limited. The vessel’s captain and crew members were also apprehended.
According to Captain Warred Enisuoh, Executive Director of Operations and Technical at Tantita Security, and Rear Admiral Olusegun Ferreira, Commander of the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe, the 150,000 litres of stolen crude oil were illegally sourced from an offshore oil well in Ondo State.
According to these sources, the vessel has been operating in stealth mode for the last 12 years, with no legitimate documentation.
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, controlled by former militant leader Government Ekpemepulo alias Tompolo and contracted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, has been investigating a string of oil thefts in the region.
Tantita’s security operatives intercepted an oil theft organization operating in Delta State’s Oporoza area earlier this week, resulting in the capture of a huge vessel transporting illegal crude oil in the Niger Delta waterways.
Former rebel leader Asari Dokubo recently accused the Nigerian Army and Navy of being responsible for 99 percent of the region’s oil theft. The Nigerian Army and Navy, on the other hand, refuted Dokubo’s charges, yet incidences of oil theft continue.
