Pipeline vandals are hard at work | Nigeria records an average of 10 pipeline breaks per day

by James Sambo

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Joseph Dawha, says vandals and oil thieves had a field day last year, recording 3,571 pipeline breaks in 2013 across the country. He made the announcement yesterday at the National Association of Energy Correspondents’ 2014 Conference which held in Lagos.

Pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft have spoiled the environment in the Niger Delta.
Pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft have spoiled the environment in the Niger Delta.

Represented by Mr Francis Amego, the Executive Director, Commercial, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Ltd (PPMC), Dawha said that the activity of vandals was first recorded in 1999 with 497 pipeline breaks, adding that it increased to 3,571 in 2013. This, according to him, has led to a high cost of operations and deterioration of the refinery system.

Dahwa added that the activities of vandals and oil thieves had resulted in a major loss of revenue for the country, and a loss of production capacity. He urged the Federal Government to develop critical infrastructure and key resources protection in line with that of the United States.

Dawha said that there was need to reinforce the existing laws to allow for speedy prosecution of cases.

Vandalism hurts us

At a Senate hearing last year, Dawha’s predecessor, Andrew Yakubu had said that Nigeria was losing about 150,000 barrels of crude oil per day each time the pipelines connecting the country’s oil export terminals were shut down as a result of vandalism.

People scooping petrol after pipeline vandals have left. Many explosions, and deaths, have resulted from this.
People scooping petrol after pipeline vandals have left. Many explosions, and deaths, have resulted from this.

Yakubu, who blamed the fluctuation in the country’s daily crude oil production levels on persistent attacks on major pipeline arteries supplying crude oil to export terminals, said impact of the menace on the economy was enormous and lamented that the continuous crude oil theft, pipeline vandalism and production shut-ins have seriously constrained the sector’s capacity to meet its revenue projection targets.

The inability of the Federal Government to meet its revenue projections in the 2013 budget resulted in the challenges encountered in the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, to meet its monthly obligations to the three tiers of government, with the states being owed several months in arrears of their statutory allocations.

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