Alison Madueke |
The Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation lost a total of N190bn to pipeline vandals between
2011 and 2012, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company Limited has
said.
Spokesman for PPMC, Mr. Nasir Imodagbe, disclosed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday.
Details of the loss
showed that while revenues lost to crude oil theft decreased
substantially within the period, revenues lost to theft of refined
products, however, increased substantially.
In 2011, pipeline
vandalism for the theft of crude resulted in the loss of N90bn, while
that for the theft of refined products resulted in the loss of N20bn in
the same year.
In the following year,
theft of crude oil resulted in the loss of N40bn, while vandalism for
the theft of refined petroleum products also led to the loss of N40bn.
Thus, within a period of
two years, crude oil theft from pipeline vandalism declined by 55.55
per cent, while pipeline vandalism for the purpose of stealing refined
products increased by 100 per cent.
Imodagbe attributed the decline in crude oil theft to increase in security operations in the Niger Delta region.
“Crude oil theft happens
mainly in the Niger Delta. This reduced because of increased security
operations in the region. However, product theft has been on the
increase especially in the South West,” he said.
The Group Managing
Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, had in December 2012 lamented the
increasing activities of pipeline vandals.
He said then that in less than five months, the NNPC pipelines had been broken at 774 places.
According to him, less
than one week after the vital System 2B pipeline was restored through
extensive repair work on the ruptured Arepo point in Ogun State, the
corporation was compelled to shut the line because of an attack at a
point in Ije-Ododo, Lagos State.
Yakubu lamented the
unending incidents of pipeline hacking and product theft, which had
posed great danger to the efficient distribution and supply of petroleum
products in some parts of the country.
If left unchecked, he
said the nefarious activities of pipeline marauders could cripple the
smooth operation of the downstream sector of the industry.
He had said, “We had
over 774 break points since August 2012 from Atlas Cove to the Ilorin
depot. Between Atlas Cove and Mosimi depot, we recorded 181 break
points; from Mosimi to Ibadan, we had 421 ruptured points; and from
Mosimi to Ore, we recorded 50 vandalised points. Also between Ibadan and
Ilorin, we had a total of 122 break points.
“These are critical
national assets and we must begin to see them in that light. PIB or no
PIB, privatisation or no privatisation, no industry can survive under
this kind of arrangement.
“We have a fallback
strategy, which we have already activated to ensure uninterrupted supply
of products. Don’t forget that we had the worst time when the line was
shut completely in August after the Arepo incident, but we have restored
the line and it started working and Nigerians felt the impact, only for
the vandals to strike again.”
NNPC had reported in 2010 that it lost
N174bn to pipeline vandalism in 10 years. The loss of N190bn in the
following two years goes to show the increasing menace of pipeline
vandalism.
PUNCH
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