By Ozioruva Aliu

THE vigilance of the people of Gelegele community in Ovia North East local government in Edo State has led to the discovery of illegal bunkering at Dubri Oil’s OML 96 in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State 8inches flowing line being illegally drilled.

It was gathered that the company discovered the illegal tapping after it noticed a sudden decline in its daily production and then carried out an investigation with information from the community.

A staff of the company who does not want his name mentioned since he is not authorized to speak for the company said: “About four days ago, we noticed a drastic decline in our production and we tried to troubleshoot from our flow station and our manifold to see whether there is any technical issue that should cause this decline.

“But all efforts to get what was going on were unsuccessful and we kept on searching until we got some informants in the community who are loyal to the company. The informant told us they have information that people came to tap from our crude oil through the flow lines.

“When we heard the information, we quickly swung into action to see the lines. We excavated it and saw it from one of our wells, GGNorth 1, to the flow station and we discovered that nothing was wrong with the lines. We think they made an attempt earlier on the line and found out it was not a suitable place to tap.

“So, they covered it up and moved forward towards the Gelegele community immediately after our manifold that collects all the oil that comes from the Well. So, from the manifold, we have two production headers, one is 8inches while the other is 6inches. So, the 8inches is where the GG North one is flowing through. The GG North 1 is a less gas well and we believe it has the information and that is where they chose to tap from.”

He added: “As at today, the well has been diverted from where they tapped from to the other header. We cannot quantify how long this has been taking place. However, our production has been declining for the past three months but the drastic decline happened this week and that is what called for this investigation.”