The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it is engaging local vanguards and vigilante groups to provide security coverage for its crude oil and gas pipelines that are located at the creeks of Niger Delta.
NNPC said it has opted to maintain such strategies rather than providing financial settlements to local chiefs in areas where its pipeline systems are constantly sabotaged for various reasons that include economic and criminal benefits.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that it is engaging local vanguards and vigilante groups to provide security coverage for its crude oil and gas pipelines that are located at the creeks of Niger Delta.
NNPC said it has opted to maintain such strategies rather than providing financial settlements to local chiefs in areas where its pipeline systems are constantly sabotaged for various reasons that include economic and criminal benefits.
Group Executive Director (GED), Gas and Power of NNPC, Dr. David Ige made this disclosure at a recent forum organised to identify and resolve root causes of incessant interruption of gas supply to Nigeria's gas fired electricity plants.
The corporation's ongoing adopted strategy against pipeline vandalism was contained in a statement from the ministry of power in Abuja. According to the statement, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo charged participants at the brainstorming session to regard issues around gas-to-power as a national emergency that deserves all patriotic instincts in the evolution of workable solutions.
While making a presentation on Nigeria's 'Gas Master Plan', Ige was quoted to have said that with the realisation of most of the on-going gas projects in the country, improvements in the gas-to-power subsector will soon be obvious across board.
He stated that the proposed pipeline project that will link the Eastern flank to the Western-Lagos-Escarvos line will ensure sustainable gas connectivity for better use. Ige said: "NNPC has always engaged community based approach," adding that the corporation will, "rather than providing resources to local chiefs, would rather use the community vanguards and vigilante groups to protect the pipeline infrastructure in the water ways and creeks."
Tagged "gas to power brainstorm retreat," the session was organised by the ministry of power and had in attendance, key players in the country's oil and gas sector, such as the NNPC, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Shell, Seplat, Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), Petrolog, BCS Energy and Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN).
Nebo lamented at the session that vandalism has only worsened the existing gas-to-power supply situation and that government was doing all what it could do to ensure full utilisation of the nation's abundant gas resources.
The minister also noted that enormous resources, used for deployment of heavy duty equipment as well as difficult terrain were part of the reasons for delay in effecting repairs on damaged pipeline sections.
He added that such gas pipeline vandalism has continued to widen existing gap between installed electricity generation capacity and actual power generation.
"We have the capacity to now generate over 6,000 megawatts (MW) but sadly we now produce a little over 4,000MW, this is not the case in other climes.
"We want the economy to be revamped, this magic can only be made manifest if we are able to produce enough power that will drive a double digit growth," Nebo said.
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