NNPC suffers 77% increase in pipeline breaks in one month

*Oil pipeline bombed near the southern port city of Warri.

Ike Amos

Lagos — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Sunday, said it recorded 77 per cent rise in cases of oil pipeline vandalism in its network of pipeline infrastructure across the country in June 2019.

In a statement on its June 2019 Monthly Financial and Operations Report, MFOR, the NNPC disclosed that 106 pipeline points were breached, representing an increase from the 60 points vandalized in May 2019.

In the statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamdu, the NNPC explained that the Aba-Enugu axis in the system 2E pipeline corridor accounted for 25 per cent of the total pulverized points, while the Lagos Atlas Cove-Mosimi axis of the system 2B had 23 percent of the compromised pipeline points.

The NNPC said the Ibadan-Ilorin leg of the System 2B pipeline accounted for 18 percent of affected lines, followed by the Port Harcourt, PHC-Aba section of the system 2E which was responsible for 13 percent of the affected pipeline, adding that other areas accounted for the remaining 21 per cent of cumulative line breaks.

The corporation stated that in spite of the wanton breaches of it critical pipeline network during the period, the corporation ensured continuous fuel supply and effective distribution across the country, saying that during the month under review, 1.76 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, translating to 58.65 million liters per day were supplied and effectively distributed.

It noted that to sustain the adequate products supply and distribution in the downstream sector, the NNPC had continue to monitor the daily stock of PMS across the nation.

The NNPC said, “In the gas sub-sector, the NNPC stated that 223.98 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced in the month under review, translating to an average daily production of 7.466 billion Cubic Feet (BCF) per day. The figure posted a slight increase of 0.11 percent compared with the previous month’s gas production.

“For the period June 2018 to June 2019, a total of 3.063.89 trillion SCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7.873 billion SCF per day during the period.

“Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 68.93 per cent, 21.34 percent and 9.74 per cent respectively, to the total national gas production.