The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has called pipeline vandalism a national calamity.
Kyari made this statement on Tuesday during an interactive session with the Senate Committee (Downstream). The issue of pipeline vandalism has caused challenges for the oil giant in transporting petroleum products through its pipelines to depots.
Kyari disclosed that over 5,000 kilometers of pipelines are not functioning, and the company has been unable to pump oil from Warri to Benin for the past 22 years. He mentioned that despite various security measures, pipeline vandalism continues to be a significant problem, describing it as a national calamity for NNPCL.
Acknowledging that the pipelines are outdated, Kyari assured the Committee that the company is actively replacing them on a large scale.
Supporting the deregulation of the downstream sector, Kyari stated that NNPCL has become profitable since deregulation. Before deregulation in 2018, the company experienced a loss of N802 billion, but after deregulation in 2021, it achieved an excess profit of N687 billion.
