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Adewale Sanyaolu
The constant attacks on critical national assets, especially petroleum product pipelines appears to have defied all solutions, posing a national security threat capable of bringing the nation’s economy to its kneel with a $41.94 billion loss in 10 years.
According to the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), the $41.94 billion loss in 10 years translated to $11.47 million a day, $349 million a month and $4.19 billion a year.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, said the Corporation had recorded 45,347 pipeline breaks on its downstream pipeline network across the country between 2001 and January to June of 2019, to underscore the gravity of activities of oil thieves and pipeline vandals in Nigeria.
Similarly, the NNPC had, in its July 2019 Monthly Financial and Operations Report (MFOR), raised the alarm that pipeline vandalisation reached an all-time high, rising by 115 per cent.
The corporation explained that a record number of 228 points were broken on the country’s pipelines in the month under review, adding that the breached lines represented an awful increase from 106 vandalised points recorded in June 2019.
According to NNPC, out of the damaged points, 15 failed to be welded, while five points were ruptured.
The report also stated that the Aba to Enugu axis accounted for 35 per cent of the breaks, while Port Harcourt to Aba pipeline route recorded 22 per cent, with Ibadan to Ilorin recording 16 per cent of the breakages.
Similarly, it said the Lagos Atlas Cove to Mosimi Zone logged 12 per cent with other locations recording the remaining 15 per cent of the breaks.
The above paints a gory picture and the sordid state of the downstream petroleum sector as activities of vandals is almost bringing the industry and economy to a standstill.
On Sunday January 19, 2020, dire devil vandals struck again in the Oke-Odo area of Abule-Egba, Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos, leaving five people dead, 11 houses burnt, goods and 36 vehicles including 33 trucks worth several millions of Naira destroyed in a night inferno that engulfed the community after siphoning premium motor spirit, popularly called petrol
Also, On December 5, 2019, part of the System 2B pipeline was vandalised by oil thieves at Baruwa village in Egbe-Idimu Local Council Development Area of Lagos State. In the process of stealing petrol, the pipeline caught fire and caused loss of several lives, revenue and environment pollution. The incident was the second in the year in the same area as similar attack occurred in November.
On December 26, 2006 and December 19, 2018, scores of lives were lost and properties worth millions of Naira destroyed in the Abule Egba area of Lagos as a result of pipeline vandalism. Similarly, on July 4, 2019 at Ijegun area in Lagos, pipeline explosion caused by vandals, led to several deaths and loss of properties.
The menace is not only restricted to Lagos alone but traverses every part of the country where there is crude, products and gas pipelines. This has led to loss of over 3000 lives and trillions of Naira in revenues.
For instance, In July 2000 in Jesse Delta State, over 250 were killed in pipeline explosion. Also, on October 12, 2018, in Umuimo and Umuaduru village, close to Arongwa in Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State, about 200 people died of pipeline explosion while many houses were burnt and properties worth billions of Naira destroyed. The victims often were people scooping refined petroleum products from vandalised pipeline.
The list is long and has been happening over the past few decades in different states including Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo and Enugu, among other states where there is petroleum pipeline.
According to data obtained from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), $41.94 billion was lost to crude and refined product theft in 10 years, 2009-2018. A breakdown of the losses revealed $1.56 billion worth of crude loss was incurred by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), $1.84 billion worth of refined products loss and $38.54 billion worth of crude losses by oil companies. Further breakdown showed volume of crude losses in the 10 years. In 2009, 69.9 million barrels of crude oil was lost; in 2010, 28.3 million barrels; in 2011, 38.61 million barrels; in 2012, 51.58 million barrels; in 2013, 78.3 million barrels; in 2014, 40.17 million barrels; in 2015, 27.12 million barrels; 2016, 101.05 million barrels; in 2017, 36.46 million barrels; and 2018, 17.46 million barrels.
On losses incurred through pipeline vandalism and the monetary value between 2009 and 2015, NEITI said in 2009, about 1.77 million barrels estimated at $88.28 million was lost; in 2010 , about 2.33 million barrels worth $166.77 million; in 2011, about 6.39 million barrels worth $639.13 million; in 2012, about 3.05 million barrels worth $304.56 million; in 2013, about 2.40 million barrels worth $240.12 million; in 2014, about one million barrels worth $100.01 million; and in 2015 , about 0.51 million barrels worth $25.93 million.
On losses incurred through refined petroleum products between 2009 and 2017, NEITI said in 2009, $78.48 million was lost; in 2010, $72.10 million; in 2011, $98.68 million; in 2012, $201.71 million; in 2013, $284.01 million; in 2014, $273.55 million; in 2015, $287.56 million; in 2016, $37.49 million; and in 2017, $514.23 million.
Meanwhile, in the first half of 2019 (January-June) between 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) and 400,000 bpd of crude oil was lost. The figures are between 7.5 per cent and 20 per cent of total production of Nigeria’s daily production two million barrels, NEITI said.
According to the Agency, 22 million barrels were lost in first half of 2019, which is valued at $1.35 billion, about five per cent of 2019 budget and higher than combined 2019 budgetary capital allocations for health, education, defence and agriculture.
Beyond the economy loss to Government, Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are already counting their losses in the Abule Egba pipeline inferno.
The inferno which was said to have started around 8.25pm have left many people homeless, including children, elderly and nursing mothers.
When Daily Sun visited the scene of the Abule Egba inferno, scores of residents were seen gathered around bemoaning their fate.
Men of the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Lagos State Command have, however, cordoned off the area to prevent the influx of people in and around the scene.
Worst hit in the inferno are businesses, especially owners of shops and warehouses that had their stores locked, being a Sunday.
A shop owner who identified herself as Iya Biliki said she was at home when she got call from neighbors that her shop was on fire, adding that before she could rush to the scene, all she met were ruins.
‘‘Where do I start from? I just got a loan of N1.5 million to support my small business. But all that is gone now. I don’t have insurance or anything to provide me with a soft landing. It is an hopeless situation for me.
Another shopowner who identified himself as Asuka, said the cause of the fire is still a mystery, saying he was around the neighborhood housing his store thirty minutes earlier, only for him to get a call from a friend 15 minutes later that his shop was on fire.
A distressed Azuka lamented that pipeline fire within the Abule Egba axis was one too many as the security agencies have failed to arrest the situation which is almost turning into a national embarrassment.
He said he lost goods worth more than five million naira to the inferno, lamenting that cash worth more than one million naira was also affected because the sales he made over the weekend could not be taken to the bank as he planned doing that first thing Monday morning.
He called on the Lagos State Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to assist business owners affected in the inferno in order to help them cushion the effect of the fire incident.
A vehicle spare parts dealer, Feyintola Ajiboba, said she held a service in her shop on Sunday to pray for a successful year, adding that she was packing the items used for the service when she heard the explosion.
She said, “That was how I had been hosting the service for years. We prayed and ate until around 6.30pm. I was packing the chairs and the tables we used when we suddenly heard the sound of the explosion; before I realised what was happening, the fire had engulfed everywhere, including my shop, and I lost goods worth N7million.
“I don’t know where to start from; everything I laboured for has gone down the drain. My life is ruined. I have been nurturing the business from infancy to what it is today. I put my trust in God.”
The Chairman of the Truck Drivers Association in the area, Ibrahim Ariyo, who attributed the incident to a compromise on the part of the personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, noted that the body lost three of its members to the inferno.
He said, “What happened was a compromise on the part of the NSCDC with the vandals because the NSCDC security post is close to where the pipeline was punctured.
“My question to the NSCDC personnel is why can’t they stop the vandals from carrying out the operation? From what I observed, the commander of the NSCDC sent to man the post was removed, because he was accused of working with the vandals.
“Last week Monday, the man was relieved of his duty at the post and a former commander, who was working with the vandals, was brought back on Friday and the explosion occurred on Sunday; that is why I said the NSCDC personnel were working with the vandals.
“We have lost millions of naira worth of vehicles to the incident; I don’t know where our people will start from, because the burnt trucks are our only sources of livelihood. The government should come to our aid because we don’t know where to start from.”
A resident of the area, Abiodun Olusola, who lost his two-bedroom house to the inferno, urged the government to come to the aid of the community.
He said, “We were inside the house when we heard the sound of the explosion and ran out and saw the raging fire. We had to run for our lives. It took about 45 minutes for the fire to get to our house; we had to sleep in one of our church members’ house; the clothes we have on now were given to us by people.
“We were unable to salvage anything from the house. We just bought a new freezer and two televisions and everything was burnt. I don’t know where to start from now; we want the government to come to our aid.”
Another resident, who simply identified herself as Mama, noted that the fire gutted all her goods, adding that she had no hope of survival.
