The menace of fuel-laden trucks on Nigerian roads continues to increase as there has been an astronomical rise in pipeline vandalism in recent times. More heavy trucks laden with fuel are now on the roads, thereby causing serious damages on a substantial portion of the country’s major roads, a situation that often results in fatal accidents with attendant consequences.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in its latest monthly financial report raised an alarm on the increasing menace of pipeline vandalism, which hit a record high of 228 pulverised points in July 2019 alone.
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The corporation’s July 2019 Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR) informed that the breached lines represented an awful increase of 115 percent from the 106 vandalised points recorded in June 2019.
Samson Makoji, NNPC acting group general manager, group public affairs division, in a release in Abuja, said out of the vandalised points, 15 failed to be welded, while five points were ruptured.
A breakdown of the incidents indicated that the Aba-Enugu axis accounted for 35 percent of the breaks, while Port Harcourt-Aba route recorded 22 percent, with Ibadan-Ilorin layout hitting a 16-percent mark.
Similarly, the Lagos Atlas Cove-Mosimi Zone logged 12 percent with other locations recording the remaining 15 percent of the breaks.
The NNPC noted in the report that to ensure sustained supply and distribution of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) across the country, a total of 1.73 billion litres of the product, translating to 55.74 million liters/day, were supplied for the month under review, adding that it continued to diligently monitor the daily stock of fuel to ensure smooth distribution of petroleum products and zero fuel queue across the Nation.
In terms of gas supply, a total of 730 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd) was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of July 2019 to generate an average power of about 2,864MW.
According to the report, total crude oil and gas export receipt of $390.33 million was recorded in the month under review as against $312.93million in June 2019. It stated that contribution from crude oil amounted to $250.35million, while gas and miscellaneous receipts stood at $76.28 million and $63.71 million, respectively.
The 48th edition of the NNPC MFOR indicated an improved trading surplus of N4.26 billion compared with the N3.92 billion surplus posted in June 2019.
The increase of 3.62per cent% in the month is due largely to the enhanced surplus posted by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), arising from half-year adjustments; coupled with increased surplus recorded by the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
