▪️Why we didn’t pump oil from 5,000km pipeline in 22 years – Kyari
The pipeline owned and operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) between Warri and Benin has not made a Kobo since 2001 as its redundancy hit 22 years, Platforms Africa reports.
The company which confirmed this during a session with Senators, expressed regrets over the calamity bedevilling the oil sector in the country.
Chief Executive Officer ( CEO) of NNPCL, Mele Kyari, lamented that the company had not been able to pump oil through pipeline from Warri to Benin in 22 years.
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He disclosed that over 5,000 kilometres oil pipelines in the country are not working as a result of pipeline vandalism.
Kyari, who disclosed this during an interactive session with the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), added that the vandalism carried out on over 5,000 kilometers of oil pipelines by vandals across the country has become a national calamity.
Assuring Nigerians that the nation’s four oil refineries would be made functional very soon, he disclosed that as a result of pipeline vandalism 10 million litres of oil was lost from volume pumped from Aba to Enugu at a time.
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He said: “Over 5,000 kilometres oil pipelines in the country are not working. As a result of pipeline vandalism, 10 million litres of oil were lost from volume pumped from Aba to Enugu at a time.
“The company has been unable to pump oil from Warri to Benin within the last 22 years and can not connect to Ore .
“There is no amount of security measures that had not been taken to curb the crime without success, which to us in NNPCL, is substantially a national calamity.”
The company is embarking on massive replacement of the pipelines, which, aside being vandalised, are old and obsolete.
He explained further to the committee that deregulation of the oil sector and, in particular, subsidy removal carried out in May this year has turned NNPCL into a profitable company .
He explained that before deregulation in 2018, the company made a loss of N802 billion, but after deregulation in 2021, it made an excess profit of N687 billion.
He added that while 67 million litres of oil was consumed per day during the era of subsidy regime, average of 55 million litres are being consumed on daily basis now, just as the problem of smuggling the product across border, has become things of the past .
In their remarks, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (APC Anambra South) and other members, said that proper dissection of challenges facing the sector would be better made in a retreat.
Senator Seriake Dickson (PDP Bayelsa West) told the NNPCL boss to look critically into the surveillance security contract the company is operating as regards non inclusion of some oil producing areas .
He said: “Some local governments in Bayelsa State like Sagbama where i come from are not covered by the contract with attendant consequences.”
