The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that 531 million litres of petrol valued at over N50 billion was lost to pipeline vandals between January and September, 2015.
The loss was at the problematic System 2B Pipeline network, which stretches from the Atlas Cove in Lagos to Ilorin in Kwara State.
In a presentation to the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream, the Managing Director of the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, said that the losses, which chiefly accrued from the incessant hacking of the pipeline at the notorious Arepo to Mosimi axis of the pipeline artery, has made the task of providing seamless flow of petroleum products to retail outlets more burdensome.
Nnamdi-Ogbue said despite the challenge posed by the unavailability of the vital System 2B Pipeline network, the PPMC has continued to ensure that the country remains wet with petrol through massive truck-out from depots in Lagos, Oghara in Delta State and recently Calabar in Cross River State.
The PPMC MD, however, noted that the spirited efforts made so far by the Corporation to entrench zero fuel queues across the country are being hampered by the activities of some unscrupulous marketers involved in hoarding, sharp practices and diversion of petroleum products for sale in black markets across the country.
“We view this as a distortion to the economy and we have invited the DSS and the EFCC to take action,” she said.
Earlier in his presentation, the Group Executive Director of Commercial and Investment, Dr. Babatunde Adeniran, told the Senate Committee that the fuel situation was exacerbated by the inability of oil marketers to meet their import allocation quota due to outstanding subsidy payments, thus creating a gap, which the PPMC has been working round the clock to bridge despite the extraneous challenges like hoarding and incessant pipeline hacking.
Answering a question on the ways to ensure a lasting solution to the perennial problem of fuel scarcity, Dr. Jamila Shu’ara, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources and leader of the delegation, harped on the need to build strategic reserve stock of petroleum products akin to the national grain reserves across the country.
Senator Uche Ekwunife, the Committee Chairman, while acknowledging the efforts made so far by the NNPC to ensure unimpeded fuel supply, however, gave the Ministry two weeks to ensure sanity in the supply and distribution of petroleum products across the country. [myad]
