The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bashir Ojulari, has claimed that some international syndicates are exploiting security gaps to steal crude oil across Africa.

He also suggested the need to enhance national and continental security architecture to address the challenge.

Naijaonpoint reports that Ojulari made the submission on Monday while speaking at the opening of the Africa Chief of Defence Staff Conference held in Abuja.

The NNPCL boss emphasized that crude oil theft and other illegal activities around it are not a localised operation.

“Crude theft and its attendant illegal activities are by no means a purely localised occurrence; rather, these operations involve specialised international syndicates that take advantage of gaps within the state, national and continental security architecture to conduct illegal activities,” he said.

Ojulari, however, said the crude theft and pipeline vandalism, especially within the oil-rich Niger Delta area of Nigeria, have been effectively contained in recent times.

He attributed the success story to government efforts and the commitment of the nation’s security forces.

“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.

“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% to 30%, we are attaining close to 100% due to the support of the security forces and the intelligence agencies,” Ojulari stated.

Dignitaries who attended the event include Vice President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu, the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed; Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu; Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa; ECOWAS Commission President, Omar Touray; Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mahamoud Youssouf; former Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations, Ibrahim Gambari; and the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji.