YENAGOA, Nigeria, March 28 (Reuters) - Nigeria has arrestedtwo Britons and 10 of its own citizens on charges of trying tobribe a military officer to facilitate oil theft, the militarysaid on Friday.
Oil theft by armed gangs is rampant in Africa's topcrude-producing country, with estimates ranging from 100,000barrels to 250,000 barrels a day lost to so-called "bunkerers".
Major-General E.J. Atewe, commander of the mixed militaryand police Joint Task Force (JTF) for the oil-producing NigerDelta region, said two of the bunkerers, both Nigerian, had goneto an officer to request clearance to move the crude oil.
They had openly admitted their plan was to hack into apipeline and connect a hose that would siphon crude out of itonto a waiting boat, and offered him $6,500 to provide a gunboatto protect them on the way out.
"The suspects were immediately arrested for attempting tobribe the brigade commander for economic sabotage," Atewe saidin a statement, and a follow-up operation had led to the arrestof two Britons and another eight Nigerians.
Stories of collusion with the security forces are common andthe sheer scale of oil theft in Nigeria would not be possiblewithout systematic collusion by various security agencies,security sources say.
Loss of output from theft and outages caused by sabotagingpipelines has cost the treasury - which relies on oil for about80 percent of revenues - billions of dollars. Critics, however,say theft is exaggerated to cover up embezzlement of oilrevenues by officials in the state oil firm, a charge they deny.
Oil theft has contributed to the high likelihood Nigeriawill lose its top African crude oil exporter spot in May, asexports could fall to their lowest since records began in 2009.
Production of the Forcados grade
Despite widespread evidence of collusion between Nigeriansecurity forces, the government has been keen to portray oiltheft as the work of foreign criminal gangs. Analysts say themain buyers are gangs in the Balkans and refiners in Singapore. (Reporting by Tife Owolabi; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing byMark Heinrich)
