NNPC decries rising spate of pipeline vandalism

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has decried the rising spate of pipeline vandalism as the attacks on pipeline infrastructure increased by 94 per cent in one month.

According to the 53rd edition of the NNPC Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), for the month of November 2019, released by NNPC’s Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Samson Makoji, the corporation suffered 94 per cent increase in the cases of willful hacking and destruction of its pipeline infrastructure across the country in November last year, indicting oil thieves as culprits.

The report showed that 68 pipeline points were vandalized, representing about 94 per cent increase from the 35 points that were breached in October 2019.

The report stated that out of the vandalized points, 15 failed to be welded while only two pipeline points were ruptured.

A breakdown of the breach indicated that the Mosimi-Ibadan axis accounted for 31 per cent of the breaks; Atlas Cove-Mosimi network witnessed 19 per cent, while Ibadan-Ilorin and other routes accounted for 15 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

ALSO READ: Only improved funding will prevent NISER from collapse, DG tells FG

Meanwhile, the report said that the daily average natural gas supply to gas-powered plants in November last year increased by 16.53 per cent to 645mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 2,178MW.

Comparatively, the October 2019 gas supply to power averaged 553mmscfd to generate 2,050MW.

National gas production in November 2019 stood at 228.65billion Cubic Feet (BCF), translating to an average daily production of 7,621.68Million Standard Cubic Feet per day (mmscfd).

For the period November 2018 to November 2019, a total of 3,091.24BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,882.27mmscfd during the period, according to the report.

A period-to-date production from Joint Ventures (JVs), Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) and Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) contributed about 69.50 per cent, 21.06 per cent and 9.44 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.

Out of the total volume of gas supplied in November 2019, 137.02BCF of gas was commercialised, consisting of 35.29BCF and 101.73BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.

This translates to a total supply of 1,176.40mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,391.04mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month, implying that 59.91 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, while the balance of 40.09 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.

Gas flare rate was 8.29 per cent for the month under review, i.e. 632.37mmscfd, compared with an average gas flare rate of 8.80 per cent, i.e. 692.97mmscfd for the period November 2018 to November 2019.

The report said an export sale of crude oil and gas of $504.44million was recorded in November 2019; indicating an increase of 4.39 per cent compared to the previous month.

According to the November report, crude oil export sales contributed $383.89 million (76.10 per cent) of the dollar transactions compared with $396.94 million contributions in the previous month; while the export gas sales amounted to $120.55million in the month.

It said the November 2018 to November 2019 crude oil and gas transactions indicated that crude oil and gas worth $5.46billion was exported.