On August 7, 2022, MT Heroic Idun, a VLCC (Very Larger Crude Carrier), sailed into Nigerian waters and boldly headed straight to Akpo Field operated by Total SA. The super tanker had no clearance or any form of authorization from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC) to be at the oil field for the purpose of loading Nigerian crude.
Obviously, the ship was there to lift the nation’s crude oil illegally. When she was accosted by the Nigerian Navy and questioned concerning her mission and approval status, the ship captain admitted that the ship did not have the necessary clearance. But when the navy operating with its patrol craft, NNS Gongola asked the oil tanker to follow the naval patrol boat, the captain said their ship agent told them not to take orders from the Nigerian Navy. Instead of following NNS Gongola, Heroic Idun changed course, increased speed and headed towards Sao Tome and Principe. In addition, she raised a false alarm to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) that she was under attack.
The Nigerian Navy Chief of Policy and Plans (CCPLANS), Rear Admiral Saidu Garba disclosed all these at a press briefing in Abuja. Excerpts of the press briefing:
“MT HEROIC IDUN (IMO: 9858058) is registered in Marshall Island with an overall length of 336-meter and capacity of barrels. The vessel arrived Akpo Field midnight on 7 Aug 22 with the obvious intention of lifting crude oil within the Field, albeit, illegally. This was, however, spotted by the Nigerian Navy Maritime Domain Awareness facility which probed the legitimacy of the Very Large Crude Carrier’s presence in the Total SA operated Akpo Field. The outcome of all relevant enquiries from the controlling agency, NNPC Ltd, revealed that the vessel was not cleared to be in Akpo Oilfield.
This revelation necessitated the deployment of the Nigerian Navy Inshore Patrol Craft, NNS GONGOLA, to investigate the super tanker’s activities at Akpo on 8 Aug 22. NNS GONGOLA arrived Akpo Oilfield and interrogated MT HEROIC IDUN, asking critical questions including her mission and approval status to enter Akpo Field among others. The Captain of the vessel duly responded to the questions and further stated that MT HEROIC IDUN was without relevant clearance to operate in the Field.
Accordingly, the vessel was ordered to turn around and follow NNS GONGOLA to Bonny anchorage pending when she will be cleared for loading by NNPC Ltd. However, the Captain after contacting the Master/Shipping Agent refused to cooperate with NNS GONGOLA and stated that she had been told not to take directives from the Nigerian Navy Ship. Thereafter, she engaged full speed southwards towards the Sao Tome and Principe maritime area in a bid to evade arrest.
Apart from refusing lawful arrest, the Captain of the vessel made a broadcast of false piracy attack call to IMB Piracy Reporting Centre to mislead mariners that NNS GONGOLA was a pirate vessel and possibly concoct an alibi for her desperate action.
In the piracy alert the Nigerian Navy also through international collaboration alerted relevant piracy reporting centres through CRESMAO and ECOWAS ZONE F Cotonou headed by Nigerian Navy officers for the alert to be cancelled immediately which was done.
Permit me to mention here that Nigeria has not recorded any piracy attack in its waters in over one year. Hence, this mischievous act by the ship is clearly aimed at tarnishing the good image of the maritime domain of Nigeria, which we have worked very hard to achieve.
The brazen act of defiance to constituted authority by the Captain of the vessel necessitated the Nigerian Navy to invoke the collaboration of neighbouring Equatorial Guinea through the Yaoundé Architecture to arrest the vessel as we noticed that it stopped making way in the Equatoria Guinea waters.
I must state that the Nigerian Navy surveillance facility was used to track and constantly update the Equatorian Guinea Navy on the location of the rogue vessel. The Equatorial Guinea Amphibious Ship, CAPTAIN DAVID was therefore vectored to intercept and arrest MT HEROIC IDUN on 12 Aug 22. The vessel is currently being held at the Luba Anchorage in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea where the country is conducting her own investigations while we await diplomatic procedures for handing over to the Nigerian Navy.”
Undoubtedly, the Nigerian Navy deserves commendation for this feat, especially the way and manner it conducted the operation leading to the eventual arrest of the rogue vessel. MT Heroic Idun, obviously came into Nigerian maritime environment, headed to the oil field to carry out its illegal operation usual. But she did not know that things have changed. She did not reckon with Nigerian Navy’s new resolve to deal with illegal oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the nation’s oil sector. She did not also reckon with the new international cooperation agreement entered into by Nigeria and other nations for the fight against oil theft which has drastically reduced Nigeria’s revenue earning from oil.
From the way MT Idun acted during its confrontation with the navy, it is clear that the ship had been in the business of illegal oil lifting. It also showed that that was not her first time of engaging in such illegal operation. The action also is an indication that her agent or the people overseeing her operations in Nigeria are powerful people. This confirms what Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) said recently that the nation’s elites are the force behind crude oil theft and illegal refineries in the Niger Delta. They are the big, well-connected and privileged Nigerians. If this is not the case, the Captain of MT Heroic Idun wouldn’t have told the naval officials that her agent told her not to obey instructions from the Nigerian Navy.
The navy deserves the accolades for pursuing the oil tanker and seeing to her eventual arrest in Equatorial Guinea. Now the vessel has been arrested, Nigerians deserve to know the people behind her operations in Nigeria. Investigation should also be conducted concerning her past operations in Nigeria with the view to establishing the level of damage she has inflicted on the country.
MT Heroic Idun has cases to answer both in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea. While she faces charges of illegal entry and suspected oil theft in Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea said the ship was being investigated. According to the Vice-President of the country, Teodoro Nguema, who confirmed the arrest and on-going investigation, “the tanker has incurred two serious offences; first, entering our waters without prior authorisation and second, navigating without an identifying flag.”
Crude oil theft and illegal lifting has reached an alarming proportion in Nigeria with the result that the country can no longer meet its OPEC production quota. The country’s revenue loss is also astronomical. A report by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Independent Petroleum Producers Group, has shown that from January 2021 to February 2022, Nigeria lost $3.2 billion to crude oil theft. And over $1 billion was lost in the first three months of the year.
In order to battle the economic crime, the country recently came out with some strategies. One of the strategies is concretizing diplomatic ties with some countries that will ring the alarm bells whenever vessels with stolen crude from Nigeria are spotted on their shores.
There is no doubt that these strategies have started working. Once again, the Nigerian Navy deserves some applause for the arrest of MT Heroic Idun, so also does Equatorial Guinea navy.
MT Heroic Idun, a VLCC with an overall length of 336-metres was built in 2020 with the capacity to carry 2million barrels of crude. Her arrest, no doubt, may have sent some signals to other ships and the cartel involved in illegal oil lifting in Nigeria. The navy’s sustained efforts in this direction will, no doubt, result in the arrest of other reprobate vessels engaged in oil theft and other forms of illegalities on Nigerian waters. But will the new resolve be sustained?
