Oil Theft: The Poor, The Rich Are Involved -Sylva

Chief Timipre Sylva is his name. His friends and political acquaintances describe him as a man of many parts. The Okpoama born, tall, handsome looking politician is the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, coordinating the activities of the Nigerian oil and gas industry. He doubles as leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bayelsa, his home state. 

In this interview with a Yenagoa based FM radio station, which was monitored and transcribed by our correspondent, JOHN ODHE, the minister spoke on a number of burning issues as they affect the nation, among which is the issue of oil theft. Sylva also spoke on his worst and most challenging moments as minister. He equally highlighted his achievements in spite of the daunting challenges facing the oil industry. The Minister did not also forget to touch the issue of the Moslem/Moslem presidential ticket of the APC among other issues.

Excerpts: 

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How has the task been for you, managing the petroleum industry, particularly in view of what is happening?
I must say that it is not just a difficult time for the oil industry alone. It’s a difficult time, not only for Nigeria but it’s a difficult time globally.

I became Minister of State for Petroleum in 2019. And I should remember COVID-19 struck in 2020. It started in 2019 December in far away China and by March, 2020, the whole world was on lockdown. So, it was a very difficult time for the oil industry. Most of the refineries closed down because people were not driving cars anymore because of the lockdown. Nobody was buying petrol. And because nobody was buying petrol, all the refineries had their tanks full and they could not produce anymore. So, all the refineries shutdown. And since all the refineries are shutdown, there was no demand for our crude oil. So, some of our crude oil cargoes were even stranded mid sea. And it was a very difficult time. And that time continued for the whole of 2020. Oil prices crashed to rock bottom; to prices never ever before seen in history. And it was so until 2021 and towards the end of 2021, things started opening up. And of course, when things started opening up, demand only started building up gradually. Up till now, we have not fully recovered in the oil industry. I must say it was a very difficult time but it was also a very challenging time for us because it allowed us to come up with ingenious ways of solving our problems. At OPEC, we were able to walk the thin line to ensure that prices did not completely swallow us.

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And I would say that it has been a good run during my time. I have done quite a bit. Within this period, in spite of all these challenges, we have been able to achieve a lot. I was able to achieve the passage of the PIA, which is a law that had been outstanding for over 20 years. We were able to kick-start the rehabilitation of refineries. I was able to start Train-7 which took a lot of efforts before me. So many things we could not do have actually been achieved during this period. And I look back and l am thankful that I have been able to achieve quite a bit. On the Bayelsa front, we were able to attract a lot of development into Bayelsa. We were able to get funding of some millions of dollars for the Azikel refinery situated at Gbarain. There is also a cylinder company that we also enabled in the same Gbarain axis. I was able to attract the five thousand barrels per day Modular Refinery, Atlantic refinery and the Bayelsa Petroleum Product terminal. A lot of things have been achieved and what we want to finally achieve now in the next few weeks will be the most talked about Oloibiri Museum. Oloibiri Museum has been in planning for a long time. Not until now has it passed a certain stage of discussion. But now, the President has approved and it will soon go to the federal executive council and we will have a befitting oil museum at Oloibiri. I am sure that by the end of this year, that will pass the executive council. And I believe that I have done well, not only for my state but also for Nigeria.

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After painting this gloomy picture of what the COVID-19 did to the oil sector worldwide, some people still believe that the Ukraine versus Russia crisis is benefiting oil producing countries. Why is ours the reverse?
That is also another big issue. What happened immediately after the COVID-19, because a lot of the production facilities were abandoned, vandals and thieves used this opportunity to invade those facilities. And by the time we opened up, oil theft got to unprecedented heights. You know of the Kpofire everywhere, the people are doing this thing and damaging our environment and damaging our well-being as a people. And because of this, oil companies shutdown their production again after COVID-19. Even when they were opening up their pipelines, it is not pipelines they were opening up, they were opening up baskets; because if you have a pipeline that you are opening up; you put in hundred litres but at the other end, what you receive is ten litres because between the time of injecting crude oil and the point of receiving, you have lost all your production. So, oil companies now felt that there was no point to produce since all the oil was being stolen. So, a lot of them shutdown again. So, we have problem. Now, at this point we are speaking, we are not able to meet up our OPEC quota. We are only trying to come back gradually. Because most of the oil companies said, and of course, justifiably, they said they are not going to produce because it is costing them so much to produce. They are not even able to recover their cost because all the production they have is being stolen before it gets to tank and you cannot argue with them. It was a problem but today we have been able to put a solution together and I have always said that the solution to oil theft must involve our communities. If you don’t involve our communities, you cannot solve this problem. You can send all your soldiers from anywhere in the world but if you don’t involve our people, you cannot solve this problem. And of course, the federal government listened to me and we have been able to put together this solution, involving our communities, the security agencies and the oil companies.

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Is that what informed the award of the surveillance contract by the federal government?
Exactly! So, now, with this, we are beginning to see early signs of improvement. We are seeing that oil production is going back again. And it is only when we improve our production that we will be able to take advantage of the Ukraine/Russia crisis. Unfortunately, I don’t like to say l want to take advantage of the problem of another person. But of course, if there are benefits that can accrue to you, we should be able to get those benefits. So, for us too, we believe that with the improvement of our production, we will be able to benefit more than we are benefiting now.

They say poor men don’t steal crude oil. From the revelations that we saw from the surveillance contractors, it shows that there are well connected oil thieves. As it is today, have we been able to identify the persons, for example the four-kilometre that went to the Escravos, has anybody been caught?

No! No! No! You see, I will not say that poor people don’t steal oil. I will also not say rich people steal oil because a lot of people are involved and you know very well as a Bayelsan. You know very well that many people are involved in this thing. These people are not ghosts. They are from our communities and we know some of them. Some of them are not very rich people too as you know. So, you cannot say poor people don’t steal oil even if they are not the kingpins or leaders of the gang. Poor men too are part of the gang, rich men too are part of the gang.

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But of course, what you said about who? I agree that we find who but investigation has commenced because as you said, this thing goes deep, deep down. Because some very wealthy people, some highly placed people must be involved. If you see the extent of the problem, then you want to dig deep to find out those people who are all involved. So, it is not something I can say will be concluded in a day. So, investigation is on-going and I can assure you that the president is ready to deal with anybody, no matter how highly placed, on this matter. And he has given us the mandate to ensure that this problem is solved once and for all because he said this is one of the legacies he wants to leave behind and he said no stone should be left unturned to solve this problem of oil stealing. Of course, it’s a very sad thing for us as Bayelsans. It is also bad for our environment. When we go round we see what is happening to our environment; we see what is happening to our waters, the fish is not there. Before, we used to blame Shell, but today, we cannot even blame Shell anymore because most of the devastation of our environment is being caused by our people. So, we must join hands with the federal government and the security people to ensure that we fish out all these elements who are into this oil stealing which damages our environment and impoverishes our people.

Your supporters all over the country were jubilant when you picked the Presidential form but at a point, do I say you chickened out or what informed your decision to abandon your presidential ambition?
I will not say l chickened out at all but in politics, you must always apply wisdom because even the Bible tells us to be wise. And you see, in politics you need certain endorsements to be able to run an election. If you don’t have certain endorsements and certain support, you don’t have to contest an election because it will be a waste of time. Even in America, people go to get endorsement of certain blocs. And if you don’t get those endorsements, then there’s no need to run this election. So, for me, not that I picked the form; my friends rallied round and bought it for me. And I went round and l consulted and I needed certain critical endorsements for me to go ahead with the campaign and when I went round l didn’t get those endorsements within the time frame because it was a very short time frame. And I didn’t think it was a wise decision to carry on with a contest in which I do not have certain critical endorsements. So, I decided to just leave it because he who fights and runs away lives to fight another day. But at least, I raised my hand to be counted today and you will never know that tomorrow I will raise my hand again to be counted and at that time I am very likely going to get the critical endorsements that I require to run the race and you will see that we will run the race.

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Your party went for a southern presidential candidate after a keenly contested primaries but the dust being raised by your party’s candidature is the Moslem/Moslem ticket. Do you think it’s a ticket that will still fly above the average Nigerians?
Look, my brother, all these talks about Moslem/Moslem ticket, let’s leave it alone. Let’s also talk about Southern/Northern ticket. Look! For me, something is very critical. The issue of rotating the presidency of Nigeria is sacrosanct as far as I am concerned and I make myself very clear at every opportunity. The presidency goes to the north and after the north it comes to the south. It’s not a written agreement but it’s an unwritten agreement and it has worked. Every country develops a mechanism for managing their diversities. And in Nigeria, the mechanism for managing our diversity is this issue of inclusiveness; federal character, these are all mechanisms to manage our diversity to at least give everybody the hope that he has as much right in this country as everybody else. You know because, at least, I know you are not too young. You are younger than me but not too young. In this country there was a time that it was almost impossible for a southerner to become president of Nigeria. It took a lot of struggles before we got to a point where a southerner became president of Nigeria. It took a lot of struggles for Obasanjo to emerge and it was then this unwritten agreement was reached.