Vandalism: NNPC Hails Nigerian Naval Collaboration … loses N20bn over pipeline breaches

Chinazor Megbolu

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has hailed the Nigerian Navy over its collaboration towards curbing the menace of pipeline and oil vandals.

In a statement on Tuesday, the federal government agency said that their partnership with the Nigerian Navy to address vandalism and loss of refined product for the four months was about N7 billion.

The NNPC stated that partnering with the Navy to continue the demolition of illegal structures used by oil thieves had started yielding fruitful results with not less than 203 already destroyed between January to April, 2020

The corporation also noted that due to the close working relationship with the Navy, the average monthly losses due to petrol theft had reduced from 31 million litres to about 14 million litres.

Meanwhile, the NNPC said it lost over N20 billion due to 74 pipelines breaches by suspected crude oil thieves between January and February 2020.

The statement buttressed that the nation’s oil and gas regulator also pointed out that from its system 2B alone, the illegal activities of the oil thieves, loss of refined products, like petrol totalled about 56 million litres from January to April 2020.

NNPC maintained that it actually collaborated with the Nigerian Navy to achieve the result.

The statement further disclosed that the loss of refined product for the period was about N7 billion.

NNPC, however, posited that from January to December 2019, criminals operating along system 2B axis stole about 291 million litres estimated at about N38 billion.

The statement also buttressed that the loss was in addition to pipeline infrastructural damages as well as the environment as a result of the crude oil spillages.

Furthermore, the statement stressed that from January to September 2019, about 11.5 million barrels worth of $747.5 million, accounting for 5 per cent of Joint Venture (JV) production of crude oil, was lost because of the illegal activities of the vandals.

According to the statement; “systems 2B and 2E are critical to effective distribution of petroleum products to the South West, South East and other parts of the country.

“From January to December, criminal gangs operating along system 2B axis have stolen about 291.2 million litres of PMS valued at N38.18 billion in addition to economic scale damage to pipeline infrastructure and the environment.

“NNPC has scaled up efforts to secure pipeline network against vandalism and theft. System 2B and the destination depots in the South West distribution corridor are active.

“Persistent vandalism and product theft have forced the shutdown of the Aba/Enugu segment of system 2E.”

The corporation said that the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) II and OB3 gas pipeline project were in top gear and nearing completion.

“Pre-commissioning activities are currently ongoing on Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) II, Lot “B” is currently at 96.03 per cent completion, Lot “A” is currently at 91.80 per cent completion.

“Ongoing construction activities of a 130 km x 48” gas pipeline connecting natural gas from the East to the West: OB3 Gas Pipeline Project has progressed to over 90 per cent completion”.