The scale of theft from the oil industry is arguably more costly than anything that terrorism has thrown against it, ranging from Syrian rebels stealing and selling crude oil directly to Turkey, to illicit oil bunkering in the Niger Delta, according to the Blacksand group.
“Rising oil prices have encouraged opportunities for crime. It is up to internal surveillance and auditing technologies to detect losses and anomalies in purchasing records,” said Daniel Brett, director of oil security services, Blacksand Maritime, Blacksand Group.
“Oil producers are hurt most when oil is stolen before it is metered, because they are still liable for royalty payments which can amount to substantial losses.There is also the cost of equipment theft from sites. In many jurisdictions, the local security services may be indifferent to investigating crime and sometimes compromised by criminal syndicates. There can exist a state of impunity for criminality in the oil industry.”
However, internal auditing and surveillance is simply not available in countries facing internal upheaval. Syria, for example, has seen its crude oil outputs slashed by rebel strangleholds on its oil wells and the theft of oil production equipment. Production shrank from 380,000 barrels a day to around 20,000 barrels, according to an official government source.
“In the Syrian fields that are no longer under the control of the authorities, and amid widespread theft of oil to be sold to Turkey, rebels dismantle the oil producing equipment that can be dismantled to sell it to Turkey,” said the official source.
