NNPC, EFCC implementing forensic tracking of vessels to check product diversion

State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC) are now implementing forensic tracking of vessels carrying petroleum products for importation to avert concerns of product diversion, minister of state for petroleum has said.

Emmanuel Ibeh Kachikwu, Nigeria’s said at the on-going Nigerian International Petroleum Summit in A‎buja that the initiative was part of reforms being carried out by the Federal Government to ensure transparency in oil and gas sector.

Kachikwu confirmed that diversion of petroleum products was a major source of worry to the government. He explained that the various reforms being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources are already yielding positive results both in the upstream and downstream sectors.

“Today, for the first time, whatever you are producing in this country as regards when it is being produced barrel per barrel, we could tell. We can also tell when it is brought forward for discharge,” he said.

The minister said that the forensic tracking had helped in tracking movements of vessels within and outside the territorial waters of the country.

With this, he said, the ministry is now able to give to a day-to-day account of activities going on in the petroleum industry. This development was being extended to the downstream sector, with greater emphasis on the nation’s consumption for the downstream, the minister said.

Kachikwu said the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) was also employing the forensic tracking of vessels, with the same parameters and focusing on: the products that came into the country, when they came in, and when they were discharged.

The Federal Government is also working to fast-track communication with International Oil Companies on joint ventures with the federal government to ensure speedy harvest of results from oil deals and transactions, Kachikwu said.

“Oil major MDs don’t need to spend time in Abuja struggling to see me. Am very bullish in solving their problems because we want to drive the sector forward,” the minister said.

FRANK UZUEBUNAM &HARRISON EDEH, ABUJA