Pipeline sabotage brought Nigeria’s crude oil production down to as low as 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) from 2.2 million targeted for last year.
Consequently, about 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil were deferred in 2016, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said.
A statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, of NNPC, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, quoted Dr Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director as saying.
The NNPC boss, said Year-To-Date 2017, NNPC recorded 27 breaching incidents on the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP) and 17 breaches on the Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP) with a capacity of 300,000 bpd.
He urged members of the Pipeline Professionals’ Association of Nigeria (PLAN) to conduct a systematic diagnosis of the pipelines system in Nigeria and come up with sustainable and actionable solutions to the menace of pipeline vandalism in the country.
Baru urged key players to rally round the professionals to proffer solutions to the vandalism challenge as it posed a great threat to the Nigerian economy in terms of revenue loss and environmental degradation.
”The foregoing summarises of pipeline vandalism underscores the importance of protecting our pipeline system and treating them as National Assets.
”On the strength of that, we must endeavour to carry out a systematic diagnosis and proffer workable, practicable and actionable solutions that will guarantee sustainability of pipeline infrastructure,” Baru said. (NAN)
