Nigeria’s oil production may have suffered another setback in June 2019 as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) posted 77% increase in oil pipeline vandalism. This is contained in the corporation’s 47th Monthly Financial and Operation Report (MFOR) for June released in Abuja on Sunday.
According to the monthly report, 106 pipeline points were breached, representing an increase from the 60 points vandalized in May 2019.
The details: In June, there was 77% rise in cases of oil pipeline vandalism in pipeline infrastructure across the country. According to the NNPC report, Aba-Enugu axis in the system 2E pipeline corridor accounted for 25% of the total pulverized points, while the Lagos Atlas Cove-Mosimi axis of the system 2B posted 23% of the vandalised pipeline points.
It was further noted that the Ibadan-Ilorin leg of the System 2B pipeline accounted for 18% of affected lines, followed by the PHC-Aba section of the system 2E which was responsible for 13% of the affected pipeline.
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Also, other areas accounted for the remaining 21% of cumulative line breaks. Meanwhile, the NNPC noted that in spite of the high breach of its critical pipeline network during the period, the corporation ensured continuous fuel supply and effective distribution across the country in the month.
PMS and Gas Production: On the other end, the NNPC disclosed that the quantity of petrol supplied translated to 58.65 million litres/day effectively distributed.
In the gas sub-sector, the report disclosed that 223.98 Billion Cubic Feet (BCF) of natural gas was produced. This, it said translated to an average daily production of 7,466.09 million Standard Cubic Feet per day (mmscfd). The report reads:
“The figure 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.
“Period-to-date Production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and NPDC contributed about 68.93 per cent, 21.34 per cent and 9.74 per cent respectively, to the total national gas production,”
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Upshots: Pipeline vandalism is a menace bedevilling the petroleum sector in Nigeria. It usually comes at huge costs to the oil company, the government in terms of revenue and the affected communities.
Recently, illegal activities of some oil vandals who were scooping fuel from the pipeline at Ijegun suburb of Lagos State caused explosion and claimed lives of people who were burnt to death in the inferno.
