NG News: Vandals cripple 17 NNPC fuel depots
- ex The Guardian -
By Yetunde Ebosele,Energy Reporter
SEVENTEEN out of the 21 petroleum products depots operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) strategically located across the country have broken down, The Guardian investigation has revealed.
The fuel depots are designed to store products for onward distribution to oil marketing companies and ultimately the final consumers.
Investigations revealed that the present comatose nature of the depots is largely due to the high spate of vandalisation of pipes transporting products to the depots.
Specifically, the country has in the last three years witnessed an upsurge in vandalisation activities.
Of the existing 21 depots, only Mosimi, Lagos, Port-Hacourt and Aba depots are the ones currently working, the rest remained dormant including Ore depot in Ondo State recently commissioned by President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Though the four surviving depots have suffered vandalisation, The Guardian source explained that they are currently the backbone of petroleum distribution in the country.
To avoid a total collapse of the depots, the source warned that drastic measures need to be put in place to curtail the activities of the vandals.
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC, Funsho Kupolokun, had recently explained, that vandalisation has assumed a disturbing proportion and now occurs in all parts of the country.
According to the NNPC boss, vandalism has increased in both frequency and volume of products and crude oil loss.
He said, "from 1,121 cases in 2000, it increased in two fold to 2,258 in 2005.
"Indeed, NNPC recorded a loss of over 650,000 metric tons of products to theft through pipelines vandalisation in 2005 alone," he said.
The spate of increase in pipeline
Vandalisation, according to Kupolokun is as a result of availability of petroleum product in all pipelines across the country.
Recently, the menace of pipeline vandalisation claimed the lives of over 250 victims in an explosion in Ilado community in Lagos State.
Ilado and its neighbouring villages, Inagbe and Imore have been the den of petroleum products vandals in Lagos State.
The three communities host the pipelines that transport petroleum products from Atlas Cove to Mosimi while the dopot supplies petroleum product to service the South West through its 2B pipelines.
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