The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has
deplored the recent increase in attacks on crude oil and gas pipelines
stressing that the Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline was vandalized with four breaks
over the weekend.
The Group Executive Director Gas and Power of the
Corporation, Dr. David Ige, who revealed this in a television interview in
Abuja stated that the sudden increase in the activities of saboteurs around the
Trans-Forcados Pipeline and the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline in the last six weeks
has robbed the nation of several billions of naira to the detriment of the
national economy.
He disclosed that NNPC loses between 50,000 and 60,000
barrels of crude oil and condensate on a daily basis to pipeline breaks and
that there appears to be a syndicate behind the economic sabotage.
The GED stated that most of the power plants including
the Calabar Power Plant, Alaoji Power Plant, Omoku Power Plant, and Olorunsogo
Power Plant, among others have been connected to gas and that all the efforts
of the Federal Government to construct unprecedented massive gas pipeline
infrastructure are being sabotaged by pipeline vandals.
He lamented that between January and February 2015 alone,
the Trans-Forcados Crude Pipeline was attacked and vandalized four times,
adding that none of the Corporation’s gas pipelines have been able to run two
straight days without been brought down.
The NNPC GED said the Corporation was exploring a number
of options on how to tackle the pipeline vandalism menace ranging from an
aggressive community engagement to installation of technological gadgets to
stave off the vandals.
Dr. Ige noted that each time a gas pipeline was
brought down by the vandals, power supply across the country drops which
adversely affects economic activities across the length and breadth of the
nation.
He called for a holistic approach to resolve the
pipeline vandalism scourge ranging from tightening security to expeditious
judicial enforcement to bring to an end the menace which has deprived the
country of several billions of revenue.
OHI ALEGBE
Group General Manager
Group Public Affairs Division,
NNPC, Abuja.
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