PPMC: Nigeria lost about N165bn to pipeline vandalism in 4 yrs

Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited, PPMC, has said that the economy had lost about N165 billion in the last four years to pipeline vandalism. The sum includes the cost of repairs and products theft.
Managing Director of PPMC, Mr. Haruna Momoh, at the commissioning of four units of triple agent fire-fighting trucks at its Mosimi Depot, Ogun State, noted that the activities of vandals at Arepo and products theft across the country had become a recurring national embarrassment and had cost the country, N165 billion between 2009 and 2012. He added that on a number of occasions, the vandals at Arepo, who have become notorious in their operations, attacked personnel of PPMC with guns and other dangerous weapons, and prevented them from fixing the damaged pipelines.
This, he said, led to the death of a number of personnel over the years and had brought about a huge cost on PPMC, the marketing arm of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in the area of repair of the vandalised pipelines.

Fuel Scarcity: Inter-agency rivalry delays NNPC Vessels

Inter-agency rivalry is said to be delaying the discharge of products from cargoes imported by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Rivalry among NNPC officials, government auditors and regulators, particularly the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is said to be delaying the speedy discharge of the imported fuel.

Officials of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, who are involved in fuel importation, have always insisted that as a government establishment that is mandated to end the current fuel crisis, the regulators and auditors should waive certain processes in the clearance of vessels for the corporation. However, the DPR, PPPRA and auditors are said to always insist that NNPC’s cargoes should follow all the same clearance processes that cargoes imported by the private marketers undergo. With the reluctance of the PPMC officials to allow the imported cargoes to undergo the normal processes of clearance, the corporation is always locked in a supremacy battle with other government agencies before its vessels discharge imported products at Apapa Jetty.

IPMAN Explains Rationing of Petroleum Products

The Western Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has explained that the ongoing rationing of fuel supply within the depots in the south western parts of the country is as a result of the vandalized pipeline at Arepo area of Ogun State. IPMAN has also condemned the recent killings of the officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by pipeline vandals in Arepo and called on relevant authorities to stop such act of sabotage of the socio-economic development of the country.

The South-West Zonal Chairman of IPMAN, Mr Olumide Ogunmade said in a joint communiqué that the group would support the NNPC and its subsidiary, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) in whatever action they would take to restore pumping of products into the System 2B pipeline, which supply petroleum products to the western part of the country.

Tragedy: Pipeline Vandals Kill Three NNPC Staff

Three officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were shot dead by suspected oil pipeline hackers in Arepo village near Lagos.

 Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division at the corporation, Mr. Fidel Pepple, who confirmed the incident in a statement said a Deputy Manager in charge of Pipelines Right of Way and two others, who were staff members of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, had gone to effect the repair of a damaged portion of the NNPC pipeline when the hoodlums opened fire on them.

The vandals were said to have been siphoning fuel from a vandalized portion of the NNPC pipeline at the weekend when fire erupted.

Pepple said a team of engineers and technicians of the PPMC, who had been dispatched to the ruptured products pipeline site, had successfully put out the fire by ensuring a complete cut-off of product supply to the pipeline from the Atlas Cove depot. He said the PPMC team was on the verge of gaining access to the damaged point to commence proper assessment of the scope of work when the vandals who had laid ambush for them opened fire from a distance, killing the three staff members and injuring scores of others.

Atlas Cove shut down over an explosion

The Pipelines and Products Marketing Company has announced the closure of one of its network lines in the South West, as a result of an explosion. The explosion occurred as vandals tried to siphon petroleum products from the network, located at Arepo along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.  The explosion prompted the shutdown of the ‘System 2B Network,’ which is the channel pumping petroleum products from Atlas Cove in Lagos to other depots in the southwest region.

Although the Nigerian Police Force, the Nigerian Civil Defence Corps and the community’s vigilante monitor all pipelines passing through the area, it is difficult to provide security in the place because of its swampy nature.