Nigeria loses N105b annually to pipelines vandalisation – Presidency

The Presidency has raised the alarm that petroleum supply crises looms in the country as the Federal Government is losing an average revenue of over N105 billion worth of products and crude to pipeline vandals annually across the 5,120 kilometres of pipelines in Nigeria.
The revelation is coming on the heels of discoveries that the emerging queues in petrol stations is due to reluctance by Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria and stakeholders in the chain of distribution of petroleum products in the country to continue the importation of PMS and other products, as a result of the non-payment of subsidy money due to them by the Ministry of Finance.
A top Presidency source, who spoke to journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said: “The current fuel supply and distribution situation being experienced by Nigerians is traceable to recent vandalisation of our products pipeline at Arepo, where Pipeline Products and Marketing Company engineers, who went for repairs, were shot and three of them killed.
“As a result of security challenges, PPMC is yet to gain access to the vandalised points to effect repairs.”
The said point of damage, according to the source, “is along the Atlas Cove-Mosimi line that feeds five depots and accounts for products supply to the whole of the South West region and also contributes to about 60 per cent of total bridging to the North.”
The Presidency source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, argued that there was no way Nigeria, with a total land mass of about 910,770 sq km and with a population of about 167 million, could effectively manage the supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country using trucks.
The source added that with adequate security of the pipelines, “a robust pipeline network of about 5,120 KM across the nation, 21 loading depots and 19 pumping stations,” the nation will be guaranteed stable and steady supply and distribution of petroleum products.
The source however noted that the over $9 billion assets have been unused due to the incessant pipeline vandalisation.
He, however, said “the present management of PPMC since it took over about 20 months ago is doing all it can to resuscitate some of these abandoned pipelines.
“Without the support of security agencies, we cannot achieve much.”
Once the pipelines are available, the source said, “PPMC is ready to pump all products to the depots located in all regions of the country.
“It is only when the pipelines are not available that they are compelled to use other methods to make the products available.
“In the absence of security, the vandals have a field day and prevent the pipelines from functioning effectively.”
The Presidency source added that despite the challenges, “PPMC have re-commissioned Kaduna-Suleja line, Kaduna-Kano line, Suleja-Minna line, Kaduna-Gusau line, Kaduna-Jos line and Port Harcourt-Aba line and Warri-Benin line.
“With these lines functioning, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has been able to distribute products to Suleja, Kano, Minna, Jos, Gusau and Aba depots.
Some of these depots have not worked for over 15 years.
“It is noteworthy that in spite of the numerous challenges facing the NNPC in maintaining pipelines, products like AGO and DPK that have not been pumped to these depots are now being pumped.
“The successes achieved with the re-activation and rehabilitation of the above mentioned lines is rooted in the strong belief that the pipelines are by far the safest, most efficient, quickest, cost effective means to distribute products, especially for a country as large as ours.”