Nigeria's private security firm Tantita has intercepted a ship with 800,000 litres of reportedly stolen crude oil on board, the NNPC said in a statement.
According to the company, the vessel bound for Cameroon had oil obtained illegally from a well in Southwestern Nigeria on board.
"Preliminary investigations revealed that the crude oil cargo onboard was illegally sourced from a well jacket offshore Ondo State, Nigeria. There was no valid documentation for the vessel or the crude oil cargo onboard at the time of the arrest," the statement read.
The firm revealed that the vessel had allegedly been operating in stealth mode for the past 12 years.
The Nigerian government decided to destroy the vessel to serve as a "strong warning and deterrent" to those involved in such illegal operations.
"The illegal trade of stolen crude oil not only inflicts significant economic losses on Nigeria and legitimate stakeholders in the oil industry, but also perpetuates a cycle of corruption, environmental devastation, and social instability," the company explained.
The company stressed that 64 illegal crude oil connections had been discovered and 77 illegal refineries destroyed in the Niger Delta in the past week.
According to the security firm's figures for the last year, some 58 illegal oil depots have been uncovered in the waterways of Delta and Bayelsa states since the commencement of the operation to stop oil theft in Delta and Bayelsa states.