The development is despite spending of N61billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) between 2022 and 2023 to maintain pipelines, per details on the company’s financial statements.
The Nigerian government has lamented that pipelines for transporting crude oil have expired and become corrosive.
The development is despite spending of N61billion by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) between 2022 and 2023 to maintain pipelines, per details on the company’s financial statements.
The sum of N45.8 billion was spent in 2022 and another N16.2 billion in 2023 for pipeline maintenance.
The statement on the state of the pipelines had been stated by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.
He said this while speaking at the Energy and Labour Summit 2024 organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria in Abuja.
“Part of our problem is that pipelines that were traditionally transporting our crude were built in the 1960s and the 1970s and the lifespan is since over. We have identified that even when we can produce, evacuation is a big problem.” He noted.
He had also lamented the “paucity of funds” to build new pipelines.
“The reason why pipeline vandalism is very easy to do is because the pipelines have all expired they completely corroded and so, anybody can just go and tap it and the thing is busted; but there are better technologies which are more expensive, there are better pipelines that other people are using in other countries, but they are not cheap, We also need to change our model.”
“Now, the NNPC that is our joint venture partner, do they have the money to be able to replace these pipelines? I think NNPC will speak for themselves whether they have the money to be able to do that, and I don’t think they have,” Lokpobiri declared.
He called for public-private partnerships to fix the old pipelines, saying,
“That is why we have to go for the global model – PPP. We have to get the private sector to come in.”
He stated that there is need for private sector to invest in the oil sector for things to work effectively.
“For the private sector to come into any country to invest, he said they must have confidence in such a country, stressing that this was lacking in the past 12 years when there was no foreign investment in the nation’s oil company.”
“When this government, came we tried to rebuild the confidence and investors are coming,” Lokpobiri added.