In what may signal the need for a change of strategy in the Federal Government’s engagement of stakeholders in the Niger Delta region, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, on Sunday said there were 94 reported cases of downstream oil pipeline vandalism in the month of March.
According to the corporation’s March 2017 edition of its monthly Financial and Operations Report, released on Saturday in Abuja, this represented a significant 91%, compared with 49 cases of downstream pipeline sabotage in the country in February 2017.
Notwithstanding the increase in cases of vandalism, the report noted that it is still an improvement when compared to the 259 reported in the corresponding period of March 2016.
A statement by Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, also noted in the downstream sector, the corporation has a robust inland supply stock of over 1.2bn litres of petrol.
This, the statement added, is sufficient for over 34 days forward consumption.
“Automotive Gas Oil, AGO, and Aviation Turbine Kerosene, ATK, the NNPC continued to import to supplement AGO local refining and the Central Bank (of Nigeria) has released foreign exchange to marketers to import AGO and ATK.
“The report notes that the inaugurated 497.2 km System 2B petroleum pipeline network which was achieved within the period under review has helped the NNPC to sustain the gale of uninterrupted supply and distribution of products throughout the country.”
The statement recalled the NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, as saying recently that the corporation’s re-commissioned Mosimi and Kano depots had impacted positively on highways across the Country.
Baru added that the two depots had relieved the impacts of long haulage of petroleum products on the roads, saving the nation of serious environmental consequences of bridging to motorists, settlements along highways and the general ecosystem in the country.