Tantita Floors Advocates of Pipeline surveillance contract decentralization as....

* As National Assembly rejects petitions against pipeline surveillance contract

By Our Correspondent 

Tantita Security Service Nigeria Limited on Wednesday  floored the advocates of surveillance contract decentralization owing to the National Assembly rejection of petitions against pipeline surveillance contract.

The National Assembly Joint Committees on Petroleum Resources have dismissed petitions against the pipeline surveillance contract and passed a vote of confidence in Tantita Security Services Limited, alongside security agencies and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), for their role in boosting the country’s oil production.

The resolution followed a motion moved by the Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Resources (Midstream), Henry Okojie, at a one-day parliamentary roundtable on pipeline security and efforts to curb crude oil theft.

Okojie said that Tantita and the security agencies have recorded lots of achievements in securing the nation’s petroleum assets, thereby increasing oil revenue for the country.

While presenting the petition, chairman House Committee on Petroleum Resources and Downstream Ikenga Ugochinyere, said petitioners were duly invited from multiple locations to appear before the joint committee to defend and substantiate the allegations but they failed to appear.

Speaking at the roundtable, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen said despite the ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the protracted conflict involving Russia and Ukraine, the need for valiant efforts at finding alternative energy sources has become necessary.

He added that crude oil still remains the largest source of primary energy in the world, especially the transport sector where it still powers 95 percent of all vehicles, planes and ships.

The Speaker said the current crises, particularly with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has resulted in price surges and supply shortages, with consequential impact on the nation’s economic survival, saying “as a nation, we must rise to the challenge, and this roundtable is a clear indication that the National Assembly is ready to lead the way.

He said further that in order to understand why the surveillance contract became necessary, “we must remember that Nigeria’s journey as an oil-producing nation has been a very challenging one.

“The discovery of petroleum has both earned us massive foreign exchange and resulted in environmental degradation and despair. As a result, the Niger Delta has witnessed profound agitations over the years which often resulted in pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, and illegal refining activities.

“Desperate communities and weak enforcement structures created a climate of instability in the oil sector with staggering consequences.

“At some point, Nigeria was losing billions of dollars annually as between 10 to 30 percent of crude oil production was lost to theft, undermining national revenue and questioning our capacity to remain a reliable oil producer.

“It was within this context that the Federal Government introduced the pipeline surveillance contract, including the engagement of private security actors and community-based structures.

“These interventions were designed to provide security to our oil facilities, with the understanding that without the help of the communities where these pipelines and other infrastructure were located, the job of securing them would be impossible.

“In the end, the synergy of private surveillance providers, our security agencies, and community engagement, led to remarkable improvements in our daily production.