PPMC Renews Efforts To Tackle Pipeline Vandalization

In order to put an end to the persistent Vandalization of petroleum products and crude oil carrying pipelines in Nigeria, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC); a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it is renewing its efforts to ensure that it spreads the awareness about the dangers of the act in the Niger Delta and in Lagos where it is rampant. It has also promised that the perpetrators of the recent action which led to the crippling of the partially working refineries in the country which is being used to bridge the supply gap will be investigated and brought to justice. The closure of the four refineries in the country lasted for about seven weeks and has also been identified as the cause of the scarcity of kerosene that was experienced throughout the country recently. The closure had subjected the country to a total reliance on importation to meet its 32 million liters of fuel need. The Managing Director of the PPMC lamented that it costs the company millions of naira to be able to repair the destroyed pipes and that the act has always led to unquantifiable loss in products as a result of the volumes spilled and stolen. He explained that this is why petroleum products can not circulate to the nooks and crannies of the country as expected. An inside source however told Shipping Position Weekly that the company has increased the numbers of security agents policing the different routes of the pipelines and is also engaging in awareness programmes for the communities surrounding the pipes of the dangers of the act even as the youths in the host communities are being employed to secure the pipes apart from the existing security agencies. Our correspondent was told that “PPMC is currently engaging the youths in these communities in securing the pipelines as a form of social responsibility, the indigenes must see the facilities as their own and therefore take steps to safeguard them, and tackling vandalism is a task that can be achieved if all stakeholders come to work together” “Talking about the dangers involved in pipeline vandalization, a lot of the perpetrators come to scoop the fuel not knowing that they are feasting on landmines, and there are incidences in the past when many lives have been lost as a result of people taking fuel away from vandalized pipelines” our source disclosed.