This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 LAGOS 000011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DNG: CO 01/05/2014 
TAGS: EPET PINR PINS MOPS PGOV EINV ASEC NI
SUBJECT: CAPTAIN CRUSADER VS THE BUNKERING BANDITS: NAVAL 
COMMANDER DESCRIBES HIS NIGER DELTA MISSION 
 
REF: A. LAGOS 2579 
     ¶B. ABUJA 718 
     ¶C. ABUJA 1061 
     ¶D. ABUJA NI 704 
     ¶E. ABUJA NI 1445 
     ¶F. ABUJA NI 1318 
 
Classified By: ROBYN HINSON-JONES FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AND (D) 
 
¶1. (S N/F) SUMMARY: Captain O.B. Ogunjimi, commander of the 
Naval base in the heart of Nigeria's oil-rich but troubled 
Delta region, recently described to ConGen Officers his 
experiences fighting oil thieves in the Delta.  According to 
Ogunjimi, corruption within his command is not as rampant as 
generally believed, the Nigerian Navy is effectively 
countering illegal bunkering, and security forces are 
pursuing oil theft "cartels" operating in the Delta.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (S N/F) On December 10 in Lagos, ConGen Officers met with 
Captain Olufemi ("Femi") Ogunjimi, Commanding Officer (CO) of 
Nigerian Naval Station Delta (NNS Delta), headquartered in 
Warri, Delta State (ref A). It is widely held that past 
commanders of the Warri Naval base may have been complicit in 
illegal activities and given the job as a perk to personally 
profit from the posting, but Ogunjimi willingly discussed his 
tour of duty in command of Warri, and in particular, his 
efforts to combat illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta. 
 
---------------- 
Commanding Warri 
---------------- 
 
¶3. (S N/F) Captain Ogunjimi took command of NNS Delta in 
April 2003, just after the outbreak of ethnic violence that 
left scores dead and shut down 40 percent of Nigeria's crude 
oil output (ref B), and before President Obasanjo declared 
curbing oil theft, or illegal bunkering, a national priority. 
(In June 2003, after Shell Oil placed newspaper ads claiming 
it was losing 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil to 
thieves (ref C), the Obasanjo Administration made action 
against illegal bunkering a cornerstone of its policy in the 
Delta.) Ogunjimi said he commands about 600 men at the NNS 
Delta, some 100 of whom are deployed at the Escravos oil 
terminal and tank farm operated by Chevron.  The most 
significant assets at his disposal are two 180-foot patrol 
vessels, which were formerly U.S. Coast Guard buoy tenders 
donated by the USG in 2003. (A third is based in Lagos.) 
Ogunjimi said these vessels generally patrol the littoral 
areas of the Delta, have small caliber automatic weapons 
mounted on deck, and carry a crew of 55, including sailors 
capable of engaging in interdiction and hostage rescue 
missions. Ogunjimi noted a complement of smaller vessels at 
his command, which he said are frequently in a state of 
disrepair. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Main Mission: Stop Illegal Bunkering 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4. (S N/F) Captain Ogunjimi described his chief mission in 
the Delta: curbing illegal bunkering. Considered a known 
secret for years (ref D), in early summer 2003 government and 
 
SIPDIS 
oil company officials began talking openly about the problem, 
and estimates of the country's crude oil loss from theft 
ranged as high as 300,000 bpd. (Nigeria's crude production 
reached 2.2 million bpd in November 2003.)  Joint Task Force 
(JTF) Operation Restore Hope was called up in August to quell 
ongoing ethnic clashes and to curb the theft of oil (ref E). 
A Shell security official told Econoff that as of mid October 
the company's crude loss due to theft had been sharply 
reduced as a result of Operation Restore Hope, at times to as 
low as 40,000 bpd. 
 
----------------- 
Cartels and Mules 
----------------- 
 
¶5. (S N/F) Captain Ogunjimi likened illegal oil bunkering in 
Nigeria to the drug trade in countries like Colombia (ref F). 
He said cartels have formed in the Delta, and each has carved 
out a territory the others generally respect.  Ogunjimi's 
description of the typical bunkering operation is consistent 
with past reports (ref E).  According to the Captain, a 
tanker ("mother ship") anchors approximately 50 miles 
offshore during daylight to avoid being spotted by Navy 
coastal patrols.  Arrangements are made for villagers to tap 
into the Delta's vast network of pipelines, usually in the 
swamps, and fill small oil barges.  At nightfall the mother 
ship moves closer to shore, where the barges are pulled 
alongside and the crude is transferred, allowing the tanker 
to slip away without detection. 
 
¶6. (S N/F) Ogunjimi said that since his goal is to break 
these cartels, he has implemented night patrols to intercept 
illegal transfers of oil from barge to tanker.  Ogunjimi said 
he is not interested in pursuing the "loaders" of the crude 
-- usually young villagers who cannot resist the money 
offered to tap pipelines and fill barges. Ogunjimi estimated 
that 90 percent of Delta locals involved in illegal bunkering 
are Ijaw; the remaining 10 percent are a mix of other ethnic 
groups, including Yoruba and Igbo from outside the Warri area. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Note: Ijaw youth leaders told Mission staff in 
October that many of the villagers who are hired for illegal 
bunkering do not consider what they do a crime but rather a 
business.  According to the Ijaw leaders, this belief is 
supported by the fact that the villagers are hired by 
"powerful men from Abuja"; they have easy access to pipelines 
often with the complicity of oil company employees; and the 
security forces in the swamps are told -- or paid -- to look 
the other way. Last year, a pilot contracted to Chevron 
emphatically told CG that it is easy to spot illegal 
bunkering from small planes; what is lacking is the will to 
take action to stop it. End Note. 
 
------------------------------------ 
In Defense of His Mission and His Men 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (S N/F) Captain Ogunjimi said many people in the public at 
large, the government, and even within the ranks of the Navy, 
do not understand the complexity of oil-related activities in 
the Delta.  According to him, their ignorance leads to wrong 
impressions of the Navy's effort in the region, including 
incorrect accusations of wrongdoing.  (A widely repeated 
explanation of what sparked the particularly bloody ethnic 
clashes in March 2003 is that, after a disagreement between 
an oil baron and a corrupt Navy officer over the movement of 
stolen oil, Navy forces and the Ijaw militia of the oil baron 
engaged in a series of skirmishes.  The Ijaw then attacked 
villages of Itsekiri, with whom the Ijaw have had a 
long-standing dispute over political and territorial 
boundaries.) 
 
¶9. (S N/F) Illustrating his point about misconceptions, 
Ogunjimi said some 20 ships pull into the Escravos River and 
its tributaries each week to transfer petroleum products 
legally. Bona fide traders register with the Nigerian 
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), he said, which gives 
Ogunjimi's headquarters a weekly listing of ships that will 
moor in the Delta to transfer cargo.  Ogunjimi said he uses 
those lists to identify illegal bunkerers; any ship taking on 
crude that is not on the weekly NNPC list will be boarded and 
seized.  Ogunjimi is aware of the allegation that the Navy 
facilitates illegal bunkering by looking the other way when 
paid to do so, and by seizing cargoes of those unwilling to 
pay bribes or who are the enemy of a powerful cartel; 
however, he maintained this is simply an incorrect inference. 
 People who don't know the system jump to wrong conclusions, 
he said, when they see some ships coming and going without 
Navy interference (ships on the NNPC list), while other ships 
are boarded and seized (ships not on the list). 
 
¶10. (S N/F) Ogunjimi claimed that oil company employees 
facilitate illegal bunkering.  He said there is no other 
explanation for the ease in which pipelines or flow stations 
are tapped.  Without assistance, the Captain said, simple men 
from fishing villages would have no way of knowing which of 
the many pipes crisscrossing the Delta carry crude, diesel, 
gas or water. Ogunjimi also echoed the allegation of Ijaw 
youth leaders that oil company employees are so directly 
involved in illegal bunkering that pilfering barges are often 
brought directly to manifolds and spigots to obtain oil; no 
vandalizing of pipelines is required. 
 
----------------------------- 
Catch and (Sometimes) Release 
----------------------------- 
 
¶11. (S N/F) Captain Ogunjimi claimed that his command had 
seized 10 ships involved in illegal oil transfers in eight 
months.  He said the powers-that-be in Nigerian government 
pay close attention to his work.  For example, Ogunjimi noted 
that when his men seize a vessel, he reports first to the 
Naval Chief of Staff in Abuja, and then to his commanding 
officer, Rear Admiral Antonio Ibinabo Bob-Manuel in Lagos. 
Ogunjimi said that after bringing the first three vessels 
seized under his command to NNS Delta, he was subjected to 
intense political pressure locally to release them. He said 
he was offered bribes and was threatened.  That experience, 
he said, taught him to immediately move to Lagos any ship he 
seizes in the Delta, which lessens the political pressure and 
intimidation he and his officers must endure. According to 
Ogunjimi, of 10 ships recently seized, three remain moored at 
his base in Warri, five were transferred to Lagos and two 
were released. 
 
¶12. (S N/F) The Captain described one occasion on which he 
claimed he was ordered by superiors to release a vessel. He 
said his men seized the tanker British Progress (carrying a 
British crew) about the time of the seizure of the Russian 
tanker African Pride.  Within days, he was ordered to release 
the vessel and crew on the grounds that it was an NNPC ship 
authorized to take oil.  When Econoff suggested it was 
strange that the NNPC would load a ship offshore from barges 
in the middle of the night as the Captain had described, 
Ogunjimi smiled and said, "That is what I was told, and I 
received orders to release it." 
 
------------ 
The Russians 
------------ 
 
¶13. (S N/F) In mid-October, Nigerian news outlets carried 
headlines that the ship African Pride, with a largely Russian 
crew, had been caught in the Delta loading crude illegally. 
Ogunjimi said the ship was seized in a night raid.  The 
Captain said the ship and crew (including two Georgians and a 
Romanian) were transferred to Lagos, where prosecutors 
publicly stated that charges would be filed.  Ogunjimi would 
not or could not say who leased the ship, but disclosed that 
the cargo belonged to a Nigerian. The African Pride, he 
noted, remains anchored just offshore of Lagos, with the crew 
still confined onboard. 
 
----------------------------- 
Can the Effort be Maintained? 
----------------------------- 
 
¶14. (S N/F) COMMENT. Captain Ogunjimi may be sincere when he 
says GON security forces want to break the illegal bunkering 
cartels, rather than simply arrest villagers hired to tap 
pipelines, and his efforts do appear to have reduced the 
volume of oil stolen from the Niger Delta. But will 
Ogunjimi's stated strategy of pursuing the ships that 
transport oil away from the Delta remain effective over time? 
Ogunjimi's efforts are only one step up the "cartel" supply 
chain.  The GON does not appear to be targeting the financial 
backers of the illegal trade, although the refrain that 
"everyone knows who they are" is often repeated in the Delta. 
Ogunjimi himself noted that "they (cartels) are always coming 
up with new ways to get around us." And even if Ogunjimi is 
as honest as he appears to be, there is no guarantee that his 
replacement, due in mid-January 2004, will be equally so. END 
COMMENT. 
HINSON-JONES