Monday, November 12, 2012

Govt abandons 5120km pipeline to oil vandals


The Petroleum Products Marketing Company might have decided against using the nation’s pipeline network for fuel distribution due to the activities of vandals along the pipeline routes  stretching 5,120 kilometres.
The country has 21 loading depots and 19 pumping stations with a total replacement value put at $9bn.
 The PUNCH gathered that the PPMC took the decision after the recent high-profile attacks on its engineers who were carrying out repair works on vandalised pipelines.  The attacks led to the closure of one of the country’s most important pipeline network, the 2B on September 5, 2012.
The now-closed system 2B was responsible for fuel distribution from Atlas Cove jetty in Lagos to five major depots of the NNPC, which transport about 60 percent of fuel distribution from the NNPC.
The System 2B is also said to handle the distribution of 11 million litres out of the NNPC in-house supply of petrol put at 35 million litres per day, for the whole of the South-West and some parts of the North and South East.
Our correspondent learnt that the PPMC leadership had foreclosed the reactivation of the de-commissioned System 2B pipeline network for now. 
A source within the industry told our correspondent that the PPMC and  the management of the NNPC opted for the more difficult option of fuel distribution because of the repeated killings of NNPC officials working on the pipeline by vandals.
Apart from the Deputy Manager and two other engineers who lost their lives to the pipeline fire caused by fuel thieves at Arepo on September 5, a deputy manager in charge of pipeline maintenance and a manager at the audit unit, were attacked by vandals along the pipeline. They  died  in a London hospital  as a result of  the injuries  they sustained during the attacks.
“With the seemingly intractable security challenges encountered along the pipeline, the NNPC is opting for the more difficult alternative of embarking on fuel distribution across the cities of Nigeria with a total requirement of 1,062 trucks per day,” one of our top sources in the oil sector  said.
Meanwhile, the state of fuel supply at the Federal Capital Territory has worsened with motorists spending hours in queues to get the product. The product  currently sells for between N200 and N250 per litre in the black market.
On  Saturday, some motorists were seen spending the night at 24-hour service stations in  the Central Business District in a bid to get the product.
Our correspondent gathered that products meant for major cities were quite often diverted to villages  with non performing filling stations in a bid to evade government’s regulation that fuel should not sell above N97 per litre.
Attempts to speak with PPMC spokesman, Mr. Nasir Imodagbe, proved abortive as the telephone line was unstable. However, a text sent to him was not responded to as at press time Similarly, NNPC spokesman, Mr. Fidel Pepple, could not be reached. He did not respond to text enquiry sent to his mobile phone.

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