*Says Govt officials, religious leaders, local leaders now involved in stealing crude oil
*That crude oil theft has become widespread trend among all level of Nigerians
*That entire network of oil pipelines nationwide now shutdown due to vandalism
*Reveals that 122 pipeline vandals have been arrested, to be prosecuted
By Mathew Dadiya, Abuja
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari has lamented over the rising cases of oil theft in Nigeria disclosing that government officials, religious leaders as well as traditional leaders are now involved in the illegal business.
According to him, crude oil theft has become a widespread phenomenon involving all strata of the society including religious, local leaders and government officials.
Kyari said the company has discovered that stolen products are warehoused in churches and mosques with the knowledge of all members of the society where the incidents occur.
The NNPC boss spoke on Tuesday at the Ministerial Media Briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He also reiterated that the Corporation will end the Importation of refined petroleum into the country by the second quarter of 2023 when the Dangote refinery and the government’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna are repaired.
The COO assured that they will be able to repair the government’s refineries to ninety percent installed capacity, disclosing that they borrowed one billion dollars from Africa Export Import Bank (AFREXIMBANK) to fix the refineries.
Kyari lamented that the entire network of pipelines for petroleum products distribution in the country has been shut down as a result of the activities of vandals.
According to him, “we had to shut it down and as we speak,” lamenting the level of losses that they have on our product pipeline.
“When a fire outbreak happened in one of our pipelines in Lagos, we discovered that some of the pipelines were actually connected to individuals homes and not only that, and with all sensitivity to our religious beliefs, some of the pipelines and some of the products that we found, are actually in churches and in mosques.
“That means that everybody is involved. There is no way you will take products, bring in trucks in populated neighborhoods, load it and leave without everybody else knowing about it.
“Everybody, including members of the community, members of the religious leadership and also and most likely, government officials of all natures including security agencies personnel are now involved.
“They are everywhere and I’ve seen this even in the Niger Delta. There’s no way you would deliver a volume and lose up to 30 percent and you will continue to put products in this line,” he said.
“Wherever our products have gone to, everybody has become some sort of vandal”, he added.
Speaking further, he said beyond the issue of vandalism, the pipelines have also aged necessitating their shut down.
Kyari noted however that the company has decided to come up with a new pipeline management system that will enable them to be put to use for distribution of products in the country.
He added, “As you may also be aware, because of the very unfortunate acts of vandals along our major pipelines from Atlas Cove to Ibadan, and all others connecting all the 37 depots that we have across the country, none of them can take delivery of products today.”
“And the reason is very simple. For some of the lines, for instance, from Warri to Benin, we haven’t operated that line for 15 years. Every molecule of product that we put there gets lost and, of course, you remember the sad incident of the fire incident very close to Warri, close to Sapele that killed so many people”, he stated.
Kyari disclosed that 122 suspects of crude oil theft have been arrested and would be prosecuted in line with the law of the nation.
He assured that they were working round the clock to ensure the completion of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) of Trans-Sahara pipeline, and Trans-Morroco pipelines.
