By Etuka Sunday
The Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) at the weekend disclosed that Nigeria has so far lost a total of N376 billion to pipelines vandalism between 2008 to 2013.
The Managing Director of PPMC, Haruna Momoh who made the disclosure in Uyo, at a Capacity Building Workshop organised by NNPC for Energy Correspondents said, this funds was wasted on rehabilitation of vandalised pipelines.
Momoh who was represented by Engr. Francis Amego said the activities of vandals to Nigeria oil pipelines had made it difficult for PPMC to meet up their obligation in delivering oil and gas products to their various destinations across the country.
He said “the vision that drive PPMC is to provide petroleum products to the domestic market at an affordable cost. But the activities of this unscrupulous elements have been a hindrance to achieving this objectives”. He added that currently the PPMC pipeline network assets amount to 5,120KM.
According to him, acts of pipelines vandalism should be considered a sabotage and threat to the Nigerian economy.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Port Harcourt Refinery, Dr. Bafred Enjugu in his presentation stated that Port Harcourt refinery is faced with challenges of insurgency, pipeline vandalism and product theft.
According to him, Nigeria has over 60% oil refining capacity, Port Harcourt refinery has 47 percent refining capacity, but had recently been faced with several issues of oil theft and vandalization.
He said that the Kaduna Refinery if in full capacity was capable of generating N72 billion everyday.
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