Pipeline vandalism on decline, says NNPC

THE Monthly Financial and Operations Report ( MFOR) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation ( NNPC) has revealed decrease in activities of oil pipeline vandals in January this year.

Pipeline vandalism has been a major act of sabotage in the nation’s oil industry. From January 2019 to September 2020, as much as 1,161 pipeline points across the country were vandalised. Repairing and maintain the vandalised points costs the country about N60 billion yearly.

NNPC had earlier said that an average of 200,000 barrels per day of crude oil were usually lost to vandals.

The MFOR released, yesterday, showed that cases of vandalism declined by 37.21 per cent across the country in January 2021.

According to the report, a total of 27 pipeline points were vandalised in January 2021 down from the 43 points recorded in December 2020.

NNPC, which said it was working in collaboration with local communities and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate the menace, revealed that Mosimi Area accounted for 74 per cent of the vandalised points while Kaduna Area and Port Harcourt Area accounted for the remaining 22per cent and four per cent.

The report also revealed that the corporation supplied a total of 1.44billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit ( petrol), translating to 46.30 million litres per day, across the country in the period under review.

In terms of gas, a total of 223.55 billion cubic feet were produced, translating to an average daily production of 7,220.22 million standard cubic feet per day. The production represents a 4.79 per cent increase over the output in December 2020. The daily average gas supply to power plants during the month increased by 2.38 per cent.

The period- to- date production from Joint Ventures ( JVS), Production Sharing Contracts ( PSCS) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company ( NPDC) contributed about 65.20per cent, 19.97per cent and 14.83 per cent to the total national gas production.

Out of the total gas output in January 2021, a total of 149.2cubic feet were commercialized, consisting of 44.29 cubic feet and 104.95 cubic feet for domestic and export markets.