Pipeline Vandalism Rises by 115 percent in July – NNPC

• Aba to Enugu axis tops break-in point

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has expressed concerns about the rate at which oil major pipelines are sabotaged in Nigeria, stating that it rose by 115 percent in July 2019.

NNPC Acting Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Samson Makoji, quoting from July 2019 Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) of the oil corporation, said 228 points were broken on the country’s pipelines in the month under review.

The breached lines represented an awful increase from the 106 vandalized points recorded in June 2019, it added.
According to it, out of the vandalized points, 15 failed to be welded, while five points were ruptured.

The report stated that the Aba to Enugu axis accounted for 35 percent of the breaks, while Port Harcourt to Aba pipeline route recorded 22 percent, with Ibadan to Ilorin route recording 16 percent of the breakages.

Similarly, it said the Lagos Atlas Cove to Mosimi Zone logged 12 percent with other locations recording the remaining 15 percent of the breaks.

The NNPC said in a statement that to ensure sustained supply and distribution of petrol across the country, a total of 1.73 billion litres of the product, translating to 55.74 million litres per day were supplied for the month under review, adding that it continued to diligently monitor the daily stock of fuel to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the country.

In terms of gas supply, NNPC said a total of 730 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of July to generate an average volume of about 2,864 megawatts (MW).
Also, a total crude oil and gas export receipt of $390.33 million was recorded in the month as against $312.93 million earned in June 2019.

NNPC said the contribution from crude oil amounted to $250.35 million, while gas and miscellaneous receipts stood at $76.28 million and $63.71 million respectively.

In addition, in July NNPC recorded a trading surplus of N4.26 billion compared to the N3.92 billion surpluses posted in June 2019, adding that the increase was by 3.62 percent in the month and due largely to enhanced surplus posted by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), as well as increased surplus recorded by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC).

Source: THISDAY