Pipeline vandalism on the rise, says NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says the country lost crude oil and other petroleum products valued at N59.597 billion to pipeline vandalism in 2014.

In its Annual Statistical Bulletin for 2014 released on Wednesday, NNPC said pipeline vandalism increased by 4.54 per cent compared to 2013.

According to the corporation, 355,690 metric tonnes of petroleum products valued at N44.75 billion were lost in addition to 1.08 million barrels of crude oil valued at about N14.847 billion.

“A total of 3,732 line breaks was reported on NNPC pipelines out of which 3,700 was as a result of vandalism, while 32 cases were due to system deterioration resulting in a loss of 355.69 thousand metric tonnes of petroleum products worth about N44.75 billion,” it said.

“Also 1.08 million barrels of crude oil worth about N14.847 billion was lost in the same period. There were 32 cases of fire incidents during the year under review.”

NNPC further disclosed that the country lost 17,964 barrels of Bonny Light valued at N264.37 million, while 586,776 barrels of Escravos Light valued at N8.636 billion was lost to pipeline vandalism in the period under review.

In addition, the activities of the pipeline vandals led to the loss of 341,566 barrels of Ughelli Blend valued at N5.027 billion while 62,499 barrels of Seplat blend valued at N919 million was lost in 2014.

According to NNPC, Mosimi had the highest loss with 332,850 metric tonnes valued at N41.279 billion; Warri was next with a loss of 14,290 metric tonnes valued at N2.312 billion; while Port Harcourt network lost 7,460 metric tonnes of petroleum products valued at N958.72 million.

NNPC also disclosed that the country recorded crude oil and condensate production of 798.542 million barrels in 2014, 0.24 per cent less from its production in 2013, representing an average crude oil output of 2.19 million barrels per day.

It added that the local refineries received a total of 25.839 million barrels (3.492 million metric tonnes) of (dry) crude oil, condensate and slops and processed 23.360 million barrels (3.157 million metric tonnes) into various petroleum products.

“The total production output by the refineries was 2.665 million metric tonnes of various petroleum products. The combined average refining capacity utilization for year 2014 was 14.4 per cent as against 22 per cent in the previous year,” it said.

In the gas sector, the NNPC noted that 28 companies produced 2.524 trillion Standard Cubic Feet (SCF) of natural gas in 2014, an increase of 8.56 per cent when compared with 2013 production.

“Of the quantity produced, 2.233 trillion SCF, representing 88.53 per cent of total production was utilised, while 289.60 billion SCF, representing 11.47 per cent of total production was flared,” it said.