Pipeline vandalism rises by 94% as rupturing occurs in 68 points

Cases of oil pipeline vandalism rose by 94 percent in November 2019 with the economic saboteurs rupturing about 68 points against the 35 tally of the preceding month, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed yesterday. The information contained in the November edition of its Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), equally showed that the daily average natural gas supply to gas-powered plants in the period under review increased by 16.53 percent to 645mmscfd, equivalent to power generation of 2,178MW.

The menace of vandalism, which hit a record high of 228 pulverized points in July last year, has been on steady increase despite surveillance contracts and presence of military personnel charged at the critical national assets. Though NNPC had repeatedly said it would work in collaboration with local communities hosting the pipelines and other stakeholders to reduce and eventually eliminate the menace, the incidents have remained unabated as the latest report indicated that of the vandalised points, 15 failed to be welded while only two pipeline outlets were ruptured.

The Mosimi-Ibadan axis accounted for 31 percent of the breaks, Atlas Cove-Mosimi network witnessed 19 percent, while Ibadan-Ilorin and other routes were responsible for 15 and 35 percent. In terms of gas distribution, the supply to power plants in October averaged 553mmscfd to generate 2,050 MW, as national gas production in November stood at 228.65billion cubic feet (BCF), translating to an average daily production of 7,621.68 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).

For the period of 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 time, 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 percent, 21.06 per cent and 9.44 percent to the total national gas production.NNPC said of the total volume of gas supplied last November, 137.02BCF of the quantity was commercialised, consisting of 35.29BCF and 101.73BCF for the domestic and export markets.

Though the Federal Government has vowed to end gas flaring, the rate of flare stood at 8.29 percent for the month under review. This is about 632.37mmscfd, compared with an average gas flare rate of 8.80 percent, that is 692.97mmscfd for the period of November 2018.

According to the report, export sale of crude oil and gas of $504.44 million was recorded during the period, indicating an increase of 4.39 per cent compared to the previous month.

It noted further that crude oil export sales contributed $383.89 million (76.10 percent) of the dollar transactions compared with $396.94 million contribution 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 products worth $5.46 billion were exported.