Video shows Nigeria’s oil boss visiting illegal pipeline in 2022, not in 2023

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 20, 2023 at 14:14
2 min read
By Fikayo OWOEYE, AFP Nigeria

A Facebook post featuring a video of the head of Nigeria’s national oil company at the site of an illegal pipeline claims that his visit was in response to President Bola Tinubu’s promise to deal with oil theft. But this is misleading: the clip dates back to 2022, when former president Muhammadu Buhari was Nigeria’s leader — not Tinubu, who was sworn in on May 29, 2023.

“The fear of President BOLA AHMED TINUBU is the beginning of wisdom to all those wicked cabals and rogues in Nigeria (sic),” reads a Facebook post published on June 11, 2023.

The post was published by an account that regularly shares content in support of Tinubu.

“God bless Tinubu!,” the post adds.

A screenshot showing the misleading post, taken on June 15, 2023

The post has been shared more than 2,000 times and includes a 4-minute video.

The video features oil boss Mele Kyari, the head of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), as well as the head of the armed forces and other officials. They are seen walking on the swampy ground leading to the Trans Escravos trunk line in Delta state, southern Nigeria, where two illegal pipelines were found to be connected to the main pipeline.

In the video, Kyari, speaking to reporters, said an investigation would be conducted.

“We are getting massive support from the security agencies,” Kyari said.

Lucky Irabor, the head of the armed forces, also assured the reporters that the military would investigate and apprehend offenders.

Tinubu’s administration has promised to ramp up daily oil production to 4 million barrels within four years, about three times more than current levels of extraction (archived here).

A screenshot showing the crude oil target set by Tinubu's administration, taken on June 20, 2023

Nigeria was losing about $700 million a month from oil theft in 2022, according to an official of the national oil company (archived here).

But the claim that the video of the illegal pipeline visit demonstrates Tinubu’s plans to fight oil theft and ramp up production is misleading

2022 video

Using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the clip, AFP Fact Check found the original video published by local broadcaster Arise TV on its YouTube channel (archived here).

The video was published on October 7, 2022; Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s president on May 29, 2023.

Further searches showed that Kyari’s visit to the illegal oil pipeline in 2022 was widely reported (here and here) in Nigeria (archived here and here).

Nigeria’s production of 1.18 million barrels per day is Africa’s largest crude oil output, according to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

However, oil loss due to theft and pipeline vandalism have remained a drag on the country’s production and revenue.

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