THAT
Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa and the eleventh largest
in the world is saying the obvious. Indeed, crude oil remains the
mainstay of the country’s economy is the petroleum sector, contributing
about 90 per cent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and about 25
per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
A significant proportion of the nation’s oil is produced onshore and is subsequently transported by pipelines, although recently oil production has witnessed increased activities in the offshore.
Over the years, the amount of oil produced and transported between points of production, processing and distribution or export terminals has greatly increased as the demand of and dependence on oil increased.
Although this increase in oil production level contributes to the national economic growth, it also presents increased potential for environmental pollution and degradation due to activities of pipeline vandals.
While some people blamed the incident on the ruptured pipelines, the affected oil companies, in their defense, always attributed it to the activities of the pipelines vandals.
The activities of the vandals in recent past had led to the unplanned exit of some oil companies in the region, which in turn has affected the economy of the region and the country.
It is worthy to observe that while the 21 Petroleum pipelines and product marketing company limited (PPMC) in-land depots across the country have remained largely under- utilized due to their near epileptic state, the operations of the PPMC has been seriously encumbered by the activities of pipeline marauders- thus making the task of conveying petroleum products across the over 5,000km of vast network of pipelines- a living nightmare.
Lamenting the situation recently, Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke, said that the spate of vandalisation of Nigeria’s 5,120 oil pipelines across the country has become a serious threat to national security structure and a sabotage of the economy in view of the constant losses and extra costs it brings to bear on the nation.
The Minister said that the loss of lives and burden of environmental remediation from such vandalisation, which the country ordinarily should not have to bear was becoming enormous.
She stated that such unwholesome practice was inimical to the advancement of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, adding that proactive and collective measures must be sustained to stem the alarming rate of pipeline vandalisation in the country.
According to the minister: “We are all witnesses to the killing of staff members of the NNPC at Arepo last year by suspected oil vandals as well as the amount of environmental remediation that was done as result of that singular act. The loss of lives and burden of environmental remediation from pipeline vandalisation has come with enormous cost to the country and this is also threatening our national security”.
The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu said recently that the corporation had over 774 break points within three months from August to October 2012 from Atlas Cove to Ilorin depot. Between Atlas Cove and Mosimi depot, we recorded 181 break points, from Mosimi to Ibadan, “we had 421 raptured points and from Mosimi to Ore, we recorded 50 vandalized points. Also between Ibadan and Ilorin we had a total of 122 break points”.
The converse of using -trucking as alternative means of moving products comes with a massive cost, which makes the undertaking not only expensive but far less effective with the attendant operational hazards. Records indicate that with the incessant attacks on the nation’s vast artery of pipelines about 70 per cent products distribution is through trucking or what is known in the industry parlance as bridging into the hinterlands.
This requires massive fleets of petroleum product trucks of up to 1,212 trucks load out from the depots every day to meet the daily estimated national consumption.
At an average vehicle turnaround of about 8-10 days from the South to the North and re-turn, a minimum of 10,000 trucks are required to ply the roads daily.
So far the aggressive facilities rehabilitation program has witnessed the revamping of the hitherto comatose PPMC Benin Depot - re-commissioned complete with the rehabilitation of the 89.9km Warri-Benin pipeline; Aba Depot has also been re-commissioned with the recovery of the Port Harcourt - Aba pipeline to restore product supply to the depot. Also the Okrika PPMC Jetty has also been rehabilitated and re-commissioned while rehabilitation and expansion of the Atlas Cove Jetty is also ongoing.
Yakubu, visited Arepo on an on-the-spot assessment of the ruptured System 2B Pipeline which had caught fire as a result of the activities of oil thieves who hacked into it.
On that occasion, the GMD assured Nigerians that the incident (the third in a series of attacks on the System 2B Pipeline that supplies products to Mosimi, Ore, Ibadan and Ilorin Depots) would not cause fuel scarcity in any part of the country.
The NNPC boss also unfolded short and long term measures to redeem Arepo from the hands of oil thieves and pipeline vandals, some of which include: mobilization of engineers to site to clamp and fix the ruptured points to restore pumping of petroleum products in keeping with his promise that no part of the country would suffer fuel scarcity on account of the incident; Clearing of the Pipeline Right of Way to make the area accessible and difficult for oil thieves and vandals to carry out their nefarious activities in hiding; Provision of platforms for security men to effectively monitor movements in and around the area; Deployment of a technology to make the pipeline inaccessible to oil thieves and vandals;
and collaboration with the State Government and other stakeholders for the effective security of the pipeline.
Yakubu revealed that already an indigenous engineering firm, ENIKKOM, has been mobilized to redirect the pipeline from the reach of vandals with modern technology to monitor the pipeline on a regular basis.
“The engineering firm is bringing modern technology to bear on the system by burying the pipelines much deeper. New pipelines will be used to change the configuration in order to keep pipeline vandals away from the Corporation’s critical infrastructure,”. Yakubu informed.
He said in matching words with action and to continue to improve the right of way of the pipelines, the NNPC has also built a watch tower, police post, and would ensure that the hot spots would be completely secured, adding that this would also prevent the loss of lives. NNPC will also build a long wide platform that will ensure easy access at anytime for the security forces over the swamps.
The NNPC helmsman observed that the project has a very high cost benefit to the Corporation saying that the Corporation records a loss of six hundred million naira every week that the System 2B is hacked down by vandals.
Yakubu said the project has the full support of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the top leadership of the security agencies and appealed to State Governments, Local Government, Communities and other stakeholders to join hands with the NNPC to stamp out pipeline vandalism for the growth of the economy.
Aside the extensive plan to revamp depots and product supply pipelines, the GMD has embarked on aggressive expansion of NNPC Retail Limited. The idea is to increase its retail outlets across the country in such a way as to increase its product dispensing capacity to enable NNPC retail respond appropriately and adequately to issues of artificially induced fuel scarcity.
A significant proportion of the nation’s oil is produced onshore and is subsequently transported by pipelines, although recently oil production has witnessed increased activities in the offshore.
Over the years, the amount of oil produced and transported between points of production, processing and distribution or export terminals has greatly increased as the demand of and dependence on oil increased.
Although this increase in oil production level contributes to the national economic growth, it also presents increased potential for environmental pollution and degradation due to activities of pipeline vandals.
While some people blamed the incident on the ruptured pipelines, the affected oil companies, in their defense, always attributed it to the activities of the pipelines vandals.
The activities of the vandals in recent past had led to the unplanned exit of some oil companies in the region, which in turn has affected the economy of the region and the country.
It is worthy to observe that while the 21 Petroleum pipelines and product marketing company limited (PPMC) in-land depots across the country have remained largely under- utilized due to their near epileptic state, the operations of the PPMC has been seriously encumbered by the activities of pipeline marauders- thus making the task of conveying petroleum products across the over 5,000km of vast network of pipelines- a living nightmare.
Lamenting the situation recently, Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke, said that the spate of vandalisation of Nigeria’s 5,120 oil pipelines across the country has become a serious threat to national security structure and a sabotage of the economy in view of the constant losses and extra costs it brings to bear on the nation.
The Minister said that the loss of lives and burden of environmental remediation from such vandalisation, which the country ordinarily should not have to bear was becoming enormous.
She stated that such unwholesome practice was inimical to the advancement of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, adding that proactive and collective measures must be sustained to stem the alarming rate of pipeline vandalisation in the country.
According to the minister: “We are all witnesses to the killing of staff members of the NNPC at Arepo last year by suspected oil vandals as well as the amount of environmental remediation that was done as result of that singular act. The loss of lives and burden of environmental remediation from pipeline vandalisation has come with enormous cost to the country and this is also threatening our national security”.
The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu said recently that the corporation had over 774 break points within three months from August to October 2012 from Atlas Cove to Ilorin depot. Between Atlas Cove and Mosimi depot, we recorded 181 break points, from Mosimi to Ibadan, “we had 421 raptured points and from Mosimi to Ore, we recorded 50 vandalized points. Also between Ibadan and Ilorin we had a total of 122 break points”.
The converse of using -trucking as alternative means of moving products comes with a massive cost, which makes the undertaking not only expensive but far less effective with the attendant operational hazards. Records indicate that with the incessant attacks on the nation’s vast artery of pipelines about 70 per cent products distribution is through trucking or what is known in the industry parlance as bridging into the hinterlands.
This requires massive fleets of petroleum product trucks of up to 1,212 trucks load out from the depots every day to meet the daily estimated national consumption.
At an average vehicle turnaround of about 8-10 days from the South to the North and re-turn, a minimum of 10,000 trucks are required to ply the roads daily.
So far the aggressive facilities rehabilitation program has witnessed the revamping of the hitherto comatose PPMC Benin Depot - re-commissioned complete with the rehabilitation of the 89.9km Warri-Benin pipeline; Aba Depot has also been re-commissioned with the recovery of the Port Harcourt - Aba pipeline to restore product supply to the depot. Also the Okrika PPMC Jetty has also been rehabilitated and re-commissioned while rehabilitation and expansion of the Atlas Cove Jetty is also ongoing.
Yakubu, visited Arepo on an on-the-spot assessment of the ruptured System 2B Pipeline which had caught fire as a result of the activities of oil thieves who hacked into it.
On that occasion, the GMD assured Nigerians that the incident (the third in a series of attacks on the System 2B Pipeline that supplies products to Mosimi, Ore, Ibadan and Ilorin Depots) would not cause fuel scarcity in any part of the country.
The NNPC boss also unfolded short and long term measures to redeem Arepo from the hands of oil thieves and pipeline vandals, some of which include: mobilization of engineers to site to clamp and fix the ruptured points to restore pumping of petroleum products in keeping with his promise that no part of the country would suffer fuel scarcity on account of the incident; Clearing of the Pipeline Right of Way to make the area accessible and difficult for oil thieves and vandals to carry out their nefarious activities in hiding; Provision of platforms for security men to effectively monitor movements in and around the area; Deployment of a technology to make the pipeline inaccessible to oil thieves and vandals;
and collaboration with the State Government and other stakeholders for the effective security of the pipeline.
Yakubu revealed that already an indigenous engineering firm, ENIKKOM, has been mobilized to redirect the pipeline from the reach of vandals with modern technology to monitor the pipeline on a regular basis.
“The engineering firm is bringing modern technology to bear on the system by burying the pipelines much deeper. New pipelines will be used to change the configuration in order to keep pipeline vandals away from the Corporation’s critical infrastructure,”. Yakubu informed.
He said in matching words with action and to continue to improve the right of way of the pipelines, the NNPC has also built a watch tower, police post, and would ensure that the hot spots would be completely secured, adding that this would also prevent the loss of lives. NNPC will also build a long wide platform that will ensure easy access at anytime for the security forces over the swamps.
The NNPC helmsman observed that the project has a very high cost benefit to the Corporation saying that the Corporation records a loss of six hundred million naira every week that the System 2B is hacked down by vandals.
Yakubu said the project has the full support of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the top leadership of the security agencies and appealed to State Governments, Local Government, Communities and other stakeholders to join hands with the NNPC to stamp out pipeline vandalism for the growth of the economy.
Aside the extensive plan to revamp depots and product supply pipelines, the GMD has embarked on aggressive expansion of NNPC Retail Limited. The idea is to increase its retail outlets across the country in such a way as to increase its product dispensing capacity to enable NNPC retail respond appropriately and adequately to issues of artificially induced fuel scarcity.
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