The latest discovery comes less than a week after Tompolo discovered at least 58 illegal oil pipelines in Delta and Bayelsa States, where crude oil was being stolen.
Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, a security firm, discovered another illegal pipeline connected to the Trans Forcados Export Trunk line.
Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, is a former militant leader who runs the security firm.
According to reports, the illegal oil pipeline was discovered near a military security post less than one kilometer from the Forcados Export terminal in Ogulagha, a community in Burutu Local Government Area, Delta State, South-south Nigeria.
The Federal Government awarded Mr Ekpemupolo’s company a pipeline surveillance contract worth N48 billion per year (N4 billion per month) in August to combat massive oil theft in the region.
Mele Kyari, the CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, would later explain that the government was not dealing with Mr Ekpemupolo directly, but with the security firm in which the former militant leader has a stake.
The latest discovery comes less than a week after Mr Ekpemupolo discovered at least 58 illegal oil pipelines in Delta and Bayelsa States where crude oil was being stolen.
According to unnamed sources, oil companies, oil bunkers, the NNPC, and security officials all work together to steal crude oil.
The stealing is allegedly carried out via an illicit pipeline connected to the trunk line via a pipeline abandoned by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) and linked to a location in the high sea, where crude oil is loaded onto vessels and sold overseas.
The Oil Spillage Victims Vanguard has threatened to sue the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) over the illegal pipeline connections used to steal Nigeria’s crude oil.
Victims of Oil Spill Vanguard is an organization dedicated to fighting for compensation for oil spill victims, the health risks of gas flaring, and accountability in Nigeria’s extractive industry, among other things.
The SPDC operates the Forcados Terminal in Ogulagha, which has a daily capacity of 400,000 barrels.
“There have been numerous reports of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta, but we are especially interested in crude oil theft from the Forcados Terminal,” Harrison Jalla, executive director of the victims Vanguard, told reporters in Warri.
“They’ve been stealing our national heritage for nine years, and no one knows where it started or where it ended.” “We intend to begin by holding the NNPC and SPDC accountable for the oil theft and atrocities committed against the people of the Niger Delta,” he added.
The planned lawsuit against NNPC and SPDC, according to the director, will serve as a deterrent to others involved in illegal activity in the region.
“We don’t know if other areas where pipelines run through the region are affected.” We can now see a massive effort to steal crude oil in the Niger Delta region.”
“The two organizations should tell the court what they know about the massive oil heists that have been going on since 2003,” Mr Jalla said of NNPC and SPDC.
“It is fair and good for us if we have a court where everyone will recount what they know.” We intend to take them to a proper court of competent jurisdiction in order to figure out what is going on in the trunk lines.
“Our goal is to figure out what’s going on in the oil industry.” So whether they claim it’s at Forcados Terminal or not isn’t our concern. “Our concern is that some people have committed massive oil theft and the resources have been pocketed by those we do not know,” he said.