The Nigerian Navy has confirmed the arrest of over 35 ships involved in oil theft since the establishment of Operation Delta Sanity in January this year and have been arrested and handed over to appropriate prosecuting agencies. The key goals of his administration is to promote the development of the Blue Economy which implies making the environment conducive or operators to operate.
Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla disclosed this today at the Maritime stakeholders meeting to address emerging security issues arising from implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, contemporary trends in maritime security as well as other law enforcement issues which border on maritime and energy security, held at the Nigerian Navy Headquarters, Abuja.
SpyeTV News reports that the meeting which brings together industry regulators, maritime law enforcement as well as industry players to discuss critical issues which are germane to maritime and energy security.
Vice Admiral Ogalla noted that the key goals of his administration is to promote the development of the Blue Economy which implies making the environment conducive or operators to operate. He said, "The ease of doing business is part of my administration goals and, making sure that we do not constitute obstacles to the operators rather, we should assist them to perform optimally, like the provision of security to ease business transactions and also to ensure that our arrest and detentions do not inpide business."
He said the Nigerian Navy has sustained her maritime security operations through surveillance, response capability and law enforcement in addition to collaboration with all maritime stakeholders.
He said other measures have also been put in place to curb pipe line vandalism and illegally refining sites. The Nigerian Navy will continue to lean on stakehokders support especially the oil sector regulators to improve daily production out put for enhanced national revenue and economic prosperity in line with presidential mandates.
He is optimistic that deliberations at the meeting will foster tangible outcomes that would facilitate a more secure maritime environment He reassured Nigerians of the commitment of the Nigerian Navy to the fulfilment of statutory roles in order to emplace a conducive maritime domain for economic prosperity of the nation.
Speaking, the managing director NPSE, Mr Folorunso Kareem thanked the Nigerian Navy for providing total security and support that led to the reduction in oil theft and the pipeline vandalism decreased significantly and alits are currently going on in the industry in which they hope to sustain it in order to achieve the target 2million barrel per day toward the end of the year.
President Tinubu has overtime expressed desire to enhance the ease of doing business within the maritime environment as well as the oil and gas sector in order to eradicate poverty in line with the Renewed Hoped Agenda.
The development of Nigeria’s sectors over the last few decades, has witnessed several complex security challenges and traditional means of addressing these challenges, have not yielded the desired result, hence the drive for greater collaboration among stakeholders in the quest for effective development of this Sector and today’s deliberations will today's meeting will foster tangible outcomes that would facilitate a more secure maritime environment.