14th August, 2014
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Wednesday expressed worries over continuous petroleum products pipeline vandalism and its attendant negative impact on power supply across the nation.
The Operations Director of IPMAN, Mr. Mike Osatuyi, expressed the association’s concern in an interview in Lagos.
He said the association was disturbed by the spate of pipeline vandalism, adding that sustained communal participation in monitoring the pipelines remained one of the ways to fight the vandals.
Osatuyi said that there was need for the government to engage the services of local security groups in protecting the petroleum products pipelines.
According to him, IPMAN remains committed to the Federal Government’s resolve to fight the menace of pipelines vandalism.
He said the notion that the petroleum pipelines were no longer safe was a major setback to the government’s effort to boost the economy and polity.
The operations director said that IPMAN engaged the services of local security men to compliment government security agencies’ effort in guarding the pipelines.
Osatuyi said that the federal government had taken measures to check vandalism and had spent a lot of money to repair vandalised pipelines.
The Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) said it spent more than N1.32 billion on clearing and grading of the Pipelines Right of Way (PROW) between 2011 and 2012.
Available statistics showed that the Eastern operations of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) suffers an average of six pipelines vandalism per week.
It also indicates that SPDC lost about 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day due to crude oil theft and shut-ins.
Mr. Precious Okolobo, Shell Nigeria’s Corporate Media Relations Manager, revealed on telephone that crude oil theft remained a challenge in the Niger Delta.
Okolobo also said that the volume of crude oil lost daily to theft vary widely. “But the Nigerian government estimates crude oil theft and associated deferred production at over 300,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2013.
“On the average, around 32,000 bpd were stolen from SPDC JV pipelines and other facilities, while the joint venture lost production of around 174,000 bpd due to shutdowns related to theft and other third-party interference,” he said.
He disclosed further that in 2013, the number of spills from SPDC operations caused by theft and sabotage increased to 157 incidents compared to 137 in 2012.
The SPDC spokesman added that production losses due to crude oil theft, sabotage and related temporary shut-downs increased by 75 per cent.
The company admitted that there were fires on the 28-inch Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP) at K-Dere and on July 23 at B-Dere, all in Ogoniland.
“JIV (Joint Investigation Visit) established the cause of the two incidents as hacksaw cuts. There was also a leak on the 28-inch TNP at Mogho on July 28, caused by a drilled hole.
“The fires have been extinguished and the leaks repaired. The 28-inch TNP resumed production on July 30,” the Shell spokesman said.
Okolobo said that as the international oil company with the most extensive footprint in the Niger Delta, SPDC remained the worst affected.