10,166 illegal refineries, crude oil connections have been destroyed in three years — NNPCL CEO

Group Chief Executive Officer of  the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari says 10,166 illegal refineries and crude oil connections have been destroyed  in Nigeria since 2021.

Kyari said this on Wednesday  while speaking as a guest lecturer during at a lecture organised by he Faculty of Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

The NNPCL CEO said pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft had negatively affected the operations of his organisation.  But he said that the establishment of a command-and-control centre had boosted the detection and destruction of illegal refinery sites, removal of illegal connections.

He said  that over 5,686 illegal refinery sites were destroyed, while 4,480 illegal crude oil connections had been removed since 2021.

“The centre provides live streaming of surveillance data to security forces, contributing to the detection and destruction of over 5,686 illegal refinery sites and the removal of 4,480 illegal connections from 2021 to the present,” Kyari said.