(Quick News Africa)- The menace of downstream oil pipeline vandalism in Nigeria has gone down by 12.77 percent, the Federal Government said on Monday.
The government said the success recorded in maintaining pipeline integrity was made possible through extensive engagements embarked upon by the Federal Government with oil and gas community stakeholders and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
According to the April 2017 NNPC financial and operations report released in Abuja on Monday, downstream pipeline sabotage decreased from 94 vandalized points in March, 2017 to 82 in April 2017, representing a 12.77% reduction.
“The April 2017 numbers also indicate substantial progress compared to corresponding period of April 2016 which recorded 214 incidents,” the corporation further noted in a statement signed by Ndu Ughamadu, its group general manager, group public affairs division.
In terms of products availability within the period, NNPC said it maintained adequate stock of over 1.2 billion litres of petrol, which is sufficient for more than 34 days of forward consumption.
The April 2017 report, which is the 21st edition of the NNPC financial and operations report, further noted that average national daily gas production stood at 242.32 billion cubic feet, or an average of 8,077.19 million standard cubic feet per day, representing 6.79 percent increase relative to the previous month.
Comparatively, the daily average natural gas supply power plants slightly decreased to 672 mmscfd in April 2017, enough to generate 2,787 relative to 689 mmscfd recorded in the previous month and megawatts of electricity.
This supply is also 22.85 percent higher than the corresponding supply of 547mmscfd recorded in April 2016.
Also, during the period, NNPC in an effort to reduce to the barest minimum the incidences of fire outbreak in the 21 depots across the country, received bids from about 37 companies to supply six triple agent firefighting trucks to Nigerian Pipelines and Storage Company (NPSC), one of the downstream subsidiaries of NNPC.
The corporation has continued to import automotive gas oil (AGO) and aviation turbine kerosene (ATK) to supplement local refining, while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has continued to make available foreign exchange to marketers to import AGO and ATK.
