Tantita Security is living up to its obligations, reckons
Nigeria’s crude oil output is climbing. And for the first time in as many years, it has edged past the OPEC quota of 1.5 million barrels per day. Analysts point to the efforts of Tantita Security Services as chief reason for the rising volume in crude production including condensates. Tantita is a private security outfit promoted by ex-militant leader, Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo.
Whereas oil production in Nigeria in the past had crested over two million barrels per day, that number dipped to as low as below one million barrels per day. This was due to a multiplicity of reasons. They are pipeline vandalism, force majeure by oil majors on account of restiveness in the oil-bearing region, and oil theft in small and ship-load volumes. All of this were driven by poor surveillance and general insecurity of the oil facilities and oil workers.
Then entered Tantita in August, 2022, when it was appointed by the government of President Muhammadu Buhari through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL). The advantage Tantita has over any other private security outfit is that it is 100 percent home-grown. Its nativity is the Niger Delta and its staffers and operatives are mostly people from the region who understand the dynamics and topography of the area. This keeps them ahead of the oil crooks. They have also been well-skilled up in the art and science of oil infrastructure surveillance in extremely treacherous terrains like the swampy, creepy Niger Delta region.
