FG Acquires 8 Gunboats to Check Crude Oil Thieves
(Lagos)
NEWS
March 8, 2005
By Onyebuchi Ezigbo
Abuja
Federal Government yesterday said it has taken delivery of four gunboats from the United States of America and is expecting another four to be deployed in checkmating the activities of crude oil thieves.
The Minister of State for Defence, Dr. Rowland Oritsejafor, who disclosed this at the opening session of the seminar on Energy and Security in Africa holding in Abuja, noted that the boats would increase the capacity of the Nigerian Navy to patrol the coastal lines.
Oritsejafor said the country has lost over $2 billion in the oil sector as a result of illegal activities in the Niger Delta.
He explained that those involved in illegal bunkering and crude oil theft include nationals of other countries adding that the government is taking steps to collaborate with the US government and other governments with a view to empowering the Nigerian Navy and other relevant security agencies in combating the illicit trade.
Presenting an address unbehalf of President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Minister said there was need to collaborate with other countries on security measures in the Niger Delta, which formed parts of the Gulf of Guinea, that accounts for 50 per cent of the oil and gas supply from Africa.
He said US has a stake in the safety of the region because it gets 15 per cent of its oil import from the area, while member states of the European Union also get about 7 per cent of their oil supply from there.
This is the main reason why today, the Gulf of Guinea is of great strategic importance to the US and Europe. The area has spawned its own security concerns, which include but are not limited to cases of youth restiveness, violent ethnic militias and the taking of oil workers as hostages¡±, he said.
The event which were jointly addressed by Oritsetjafor, US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. John Campbell, the Director of African Strategic Studies, General Carlton W. Fulford, said that the seminar was beyond collaborations between his home government and Nigeria but with other African oil producing economies.
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