In renewed efforts to further curb the menace of crude oil theft, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd, has unveiled a Crude Theft Reporting and Validation App, which allows for a prompt report of theft by community members in exchange for a reward.

The App would also enable buyers of crude oil outside Nigeria to validate the originality of all crude oil received from the country.

The Group Chief Executive Officer NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari who unveiled the App in Abuja on Friday, said the Federal Government in collaboration with security agencies, community members, and anti-graft agencies, were working assiduously to ensure investments were secured so that oil production can be most beneficial to everyone.

Commending the Armed Forces and Nigerian Navy for the several arrests within the last three months, Kyari stressed the important role of local communities and buyers of crude oil in the international scene in addressing crude oil theft in Nigeria.

He said: “We have put up a very robust framework of ensuring that we contain this menace and we’re already seeing results. Needless to say, there are still ongoing activities of illegal refineries that are continuously put up in some locations.

“As we know when you steal, you take it to the market. That means that this is taken to a refinery somewhere and those refineries have an obligation to ensure that the biological crude comes from credible sources that they can validate. If they don’t do that they’re also part of the crude oil theft.

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“And that’s why we’re responding in two ways; first we’ll create a platform where members of the communities and other Nigerians can report whenever incidences of theft occur and we will also reward them. We will keep it confidential, I am guaranteeing absolute privacy of any such report that comes, I am directly managing this myself and no one will be exposed.

“Secondly, on international scale, companies must report suspicious sell of crude oil. Every crude oil that leaves this country has a unique registration number that is issued by the NNPC and also validated by the upstream commission. We’re also creating a platform where end users can validate if the group they’re handling or product from Nigeria is from genuine sources.”

Kyari further added that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), would pay close attention to every single flow of money by everyone related to crude oil transactions.

“Where there is massive movement of cash involving our companies and we’re not excluding ourselves, and government security agents, the EFCC will follow you. And this is what also leads to higher level of collaboration with them and this is also kicking in immediately.

“We believe that the combination of all these will get us back to normalcy and that people will see reason not to continue to do this, or they pay the price for it.”

The Star