Nigeria Spends N60bn Annually On Pipelines Repair

Lai Mohammed,

Minister of Information and Culture, Laid Mohammed,says that about N60 billion is spent yearly to repair and maintain the vandalized pipeline points across the country.

Mohammed, who disclosed  at a town hall meeting on protecting Oil and Gas Infrastructure in Abuja, said over 1,161 pipeline points across the country were vandalized between January 2019 and September 2020 .

He noted that an average of 200,000 barrels of oil is lost per day on the wanton damage to pipelines in the country.

He observed that apart from the impact on the nation’s earnings, there are also 3environmental problems caused by the incessant vandalism, in terms of freshwater pollution, air pollution, soil pollution.

He lamented that Nigeria has long suffered massive infrastructure deficit due to decades of neglect, population explosion and the absence of maintenance culture.

 He added  since  advent coming of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration in 2015,it  has embarked on a rapid economic growth with equity, i.e. people-centered economic management as well as prioritizing human capital development through enhanced social services and infrastructure development.

He noted that despite a drastic drop in revenues and competing priorities, especially that of tackling insecurity, the Administration has invested heavily in providing new infrastructure, in addition to reconstructing and rehabilitating existing ones.

He maintained  that protecting oil and gas infrastructure is very important, considering that the destruction of this infrastructure has socio-economic and environmental implications adding that with oil providing 80 per cent of Nigeria’s budgetary revenues and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings, one can only imagine the impact of the incessant destruction of oil pipelines on the economy.

The minister said that public infrastructure is at the very core of economic growth and national development therefore, the destruction of public infrastructure by some unpatriotic Nigerians calls for great concern and immediate action, hence our decision to organize this town hall meeting series to sensitize communities, especially those where infrastructure are located, to be conscious of the import of such and protect them, expose, arrest and prosecute all those who engage in vandalisation among others.

He said, “To have such laudable efforts of the government thwarted by some unpatriotic citizens through wanton destruction of critical infrastructure is totally unacceptable. To have railway tracks subjected to wanton destruction, bridge railings removed, manhole covers pilfered, street lights and other power infrastructure, oil pipelines, telecoms facilities and critical aviation infrastructure damaged or stolen do not augur well for our growth and development. Apart from endangering the lives of fellow innocent citizens, such unpatriotic acts take a toll on the government’s limited revenue, as it seeks to replace, rehabilitate or totally reconstruct such destroyed infrastructure”.

Also speaking, the Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Coorporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari revealed that from January-December 2020, losses along system 2B amounted to 146.809 Million litres of PMS valued at N22.487bn adding that some notable hotspot areas are Abagbo, Ikate, Akaraba, Ilashe, Imoren, Ijegun, Ikotun, Baruwa, Oke Odo, Warewa and Ilara.

He noted that system 2E lost 0.237Million Litres of PMS valued at N36.3million in 2020 stressing that fom January-May NNPC pipeline segments have suffered 203 pipeline breaks with System 2B having 80 pipeline breaks and System 2E, a total of 114 pipeline breaks with a total cummulative loss of 39million litres amounting to N5.973bn

He observed that  attacks on oil facilities is a major concern to the Government as the activities of vandals  have resulted to environmental damage, huge product losses, high cost for repairs, lost time on operations as well as human and property damage and urged the citizens to take the Pipelines as critical national assets and report activities of suspected vandals to relevant authorities.

He appealed to community Leaders to ensure that pipeline right-of-way is not encroached to avoid unfortunate incidences of fire outbreaks.