NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Malam Mele Kyari, disclosed this while fielding questions on an NTA Morning Talk Show, ‘Goodmorning Nigeria’ in Abuja.
HDD technology, he said, would make it difficult for the vandals to easily vandalize the pipelines.
He spoke on the heels of the latest fatal pipeline vandalism in Abule Egba, a Lagos suburb.
PerSecondnews recalls that five lives, 35 vehicles and houses were lost to the pipeline fire of January 19.
Kyari, however, decried the activities of the pipeline vandals and urged Nigerians to always report miscreants who indulge in such nefarious activities to the security agencies.
He said NNPC was also collaborating with all security agencies in the country to curb pipeline vandalism across the Country.
“We are having a syndicated approach to the pipeline challenge.
” First, there is the security aspect of it, over which we are getting the optimum support and cooperation of the entire security network spearheaded by the Chief of Defence Staff.
“This is working already. Another is at the level of the National Assembly which has stepped into this, with an Ad hoc Committee working on how to assist us to stem the menace of pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft,” Kyari said in a statement by Mr Samson Makoji, Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affair Division.
Kyari also said the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, was equally engaging stakeholders to bring everybody on the table to arrest the situation, adding President Muhammadu Buhari had taken the matter up as of national urgency to guarantee energy security in the country.
He said curtailing the spate of vandalism would also ensure that resources do not end up in the hands of wrong people to prevent collateral damage that might be apparent in the phenomenon.
According to him, whenever incidences of crude oil or petroleum products spill happened in communities due to activities of vandals or age of the pipelines, the corporation as a routine, restored such lines, cleaned the environment and contained the likely effects of the leaks.
On the theft of the country’s crude and petroleum products, the NNPC boss said the corporation was collaborating with the security agencies to put a stop.
Kyari explained that the illegal activities of pipeline vandals have rendered most of NNPC depots inactive, necessitating long distance transportation of products, with its attendant heavy impacts on road infrastructure across the country.
“If NNPC depots are allowed to function as designed, the regular congestion of tankers at Apapa, Lagos, will be prevented.
“NNPC will not despair, but will continue to synergize with all relevant agencies and stakeholders across the country to find a lasting solution to the pipeline vandalism menace ravaging the nation’s downstream infrastructure.”
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