Government Ekpemupolo aka Tompolo
Step by step, 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 these 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.
Its brief is simple: Secure oil infrastructure, keep oil thieves away and ensure peace in the Niger Delta. It has more than fulfilled its obligations. This may have encouraged President Bola Tinubu not to terminate the security contract. Instead, Tinubu renewed it. Obviously, a smart decision by a President who dreams to grow Nigeria’s economy to a $1 trillion status by 2030.
By hindsight, it’s safe to say that Tinubu was right in revalidating the contract. Since 2022, oil production has crawled out of the old order when it struggled but failed to meet Nigeria’s OPEC quota. It now exceeds the same quota pegged at 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd).
By June 2026, Nigeria crude output had hit 1.555 mbpd, the highest monthly level since April 2020. If you add condensates production output it comes to a total daily production of about 1.67 million bpd in July. That was even a downward spiral from 1.735 million bpd in June.
A major indigenous investor in the oil and gas sector, Tony Elumelu, attests to the remarkable leap forward in the containment of oil theft. Elumelu should know. As the promoter of Heirs Energies and its subsidiary TNOG Oil and Gas which operates the oil block OML 17, he is eminently qualified to pass a verdict on the state of crude oil production under President Tinubu compared to the situation before the Tinubu era.
Elumelu said that until 2023, his company was losing 97 percent of its crude production to theft. Today in 2026, the same company retains 98 percent of produced crude while losing just 2 percent. Experts versed on Niger Delta and crude oil production attribute this to increased surveillance on oil facilities bolstered by the NNPCL-Tantita partnership.
In October 2022, barely three months after Tantita was contracted by NNPCL to watch over oil infrastructure in the creeks, there was a major breakthrough in the push against oil theft. A vessel laden with Nigeria’s crude was intercepted in the Nigerian waters, a landmark anti-oil theft achievement made possible by effective intelligence gathering of Tantita and synergy with the joint military teams like Operation Delta Sanity. The vessel was subsequently destroyed by the military as a deterrent to other oil thieves. Since 2022 when Tantita was appointed, oil production has nosed up while crude oil theft has dipped south.
This spike in oil production translates to more revenue earnings for Nigeria. It was therefore no surprise that Tantita was honoured recently with the Outstanding Security Surveillance Award for protecting critical national assets in the oil and gas sector by Blueprint newspapers. The award, according to the organisers, attests to Tantita’s peerless role in the protection of critical infrastructure in the oil and gas sector. Cognition of what was before Tantita’s appointment and what is currently was taken. The award more than anything else is a demonstrable appreciation of how Nigeria’s challenges can only be surmounted by home-grown remedies. Nigeria government realises that oil theft is a major mountain standing between it and the vision of harnessing the God-given natural endowment for the prosperity of all. It did not import security operatives from anywhere. It sought for a home-bred solution to what is clearly a national problem perpetrated by a few unscrupulous Nigerians in evil liaison with foreigners. It found one in Tantita. And the endpoint is unhindered operations in the Niger Delta. When last did Nigeria experience force majeure in the Niger Delta? Rather than force majeure, what has been happening of late is increased investments in the oil and gas sector. In the past three and a half years, Tinubu’s diplomatic shuttles and engagements have attracted over $50 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) commitments in diverse aspects of the economy especially in oil and gas, manufacturing, technology, agriculture, infrastructure, mining and logistics.
The FDIs include Indorama $8 billion in fertilizer and petrochemical activities; ExxonMobil $10 billion; Shell $20 billion in deepwater projects like Bonga North and Bonga South West; and TotalEnergies $550 million for Ubeta project, all in the energy sector.
The Tantita award highlights a broader prospect for indigenous investors in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector. Whereas major investments in the past were driven by foreign investors, the stability and now obvious security in the sector has seen a surge in both foreign and indigenous investors. While the likes of Shell, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies are hedging more stakes in the Nigeria oil and gas market, indigenous players like Seplat, Oando, Aradel, Heirs are stomping the oil fields of the Niger Delta with renewed confidence.
But beyond caging the crude thieves and protecting oil infrastructure, Tantita is helping to reduce the bulge of unemployment in the country. By last count, it has employed over 60,000 youths in the region since it began operations in 2022. Tompolo, a man who prefers to stay away from media blitz and its attendant razzmatazz, deserves more than media awards. He deserves a national recognition for daring to take on a job as risky and life-threatening as shoving aside hard-boiled crooks from what they consider as their honey pot.
· Okude, a public policy analyst, writes from Abuja
