THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, on Sunday revealed in a Twitter post that pipeline vandalism had increased significantly by 77 per cent according to its records for June.
This was contained in its Monthly Financial and Operation Report, MFOR, released in Abuja boosting its monitoring mechanism of supplies and distribution of petroleum products across the country.
It also stated that about 1.76 billion litres of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, was supplied in June, while 58.65 million litres of petrol was distributed daily for the period under review.
The report showed that there was a 77 per cent rise in cases of oil pipeline vandalism in its network of pipeline infrastructure, where 106 pipeline points were breached, compared to the 60 points vandalized in May 2019.
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 per cent of the compromised pipeline points.
Also, the Ibadan-Ilorin leg of the System 2B pipeline accounted for 18 per cent of affected lines, followed closely by the PortHarcourt-Aba section of the system 2E which was responsible for 13 per cent of the affected pipeline.
“Other areas accounted for the remaining 21 per cent of cumulative line breaks,” the report reads.
Stating the frequent breaches of its critical pipeline network during the period, the corporation had ensured continuous fuel supply and effective distribution across the country for the month under review.
In the gas sub-sector, the report disclosed that 223.98 Billion Cubic Feet, BCF, of natural gas which translates to an average daily production of 7,466.09 Million Standard Cubic Feet Per Day, mmscfd, produced in the month under review.
“The figures posted a slight increase of 0.11 per cent compared with the previous month’s gas production. For the period June 2018 to June 2019, a total of 3,063.89BCF of gas was produced representing an average daily production of 7,873.58mmscfd during the period,” the report reads.
“Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures, JV, Production Sharing Contracts, PSC, and NPDC contributed about 68.93 per cent, 21.34 per cent and 9.74 per cent respectively, to the total national gas production,” it concluded.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.