The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has discovered an illegal connection line from one of its major oil export terminals into the sea that had been operating undetected for nine years.
The four-kilometre (2.5-mile) connection from the Forcados export terminal, which typically exports around 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil, into the sea was found during a clamp-down on theft in the past six weeks, NNPC chief executive Mele Kyari told a parliamentary committee late on Tuesday.
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Kyari said in an audio recording of the briefing reviewed by Reuters.
Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented.
Thieves often tap land-based pipelines to siphon oil undetected while they continue to operate, but an illegal line in the ocean is highly unusual and suggests a more sophisticated theft operation.
