NNPC spends N15.5b on pipelines maintenance

The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) spent over N15 billion in November, last year to maintain pipelines in the country, The Nation has learnt.

According to Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) report submitted by NNPC, under appendix N, the oil firm said it spent N1,556,985,671.03 on security and maintenance of pipelines; N154,293,264.32 on pipeline and other facility repairs,  N8,746,257,727.19 was spent on marine distribution, N3,353,698,696.33 on pipeline management and another N1,724,039,089.22 on “strategic holding”.

In 2018, the country witnessed some pipeline distruptions, which were reported at the monthly FAAC meetings. A source that was at the meeting told The Nation that the announcement by NNPC generated some questions from the state governments, who expressed concerns that the country was spending too much to maintain and repair pipelines on monthly basis, “especially at a time when such monies could be used for people oriented projects.”

The state governments were particularly worried that the cost of these repairs and maintenance were being deducted from revenue that ordinarily should have accrued to the Federation Account.

The report identified some of the “issues that affected production in the month of October, 2018 (which in turn necessitated the need for the repair and maintenance of the pipelines). Nine terminals were identified and out of them, Bonny Terminal suffered a loss of 710,000 Barrels of crude; Forcados suffered a loss of 1,085,000; Agbami 157,000 barrels lost; Akpo terminal, lost 162,000 barrels; Brass 360,000; Qua Ibo terminal, 165,000barrels; Oyo (not the state) 155,000 barrels; Tulja 682,000 and Erha terminal lost 10,000 barrels.

All these losses amounted to 3,607,000 barrels lost. Using 2018 figures, that will be around $183,957,000 or N56,106,885,000 lost in one month.

Specifically, the FAAC report stated that the federation suffered crude oil pipeline losses of N88,422,130.82 basically from the pipeline segment of CNL- WRPC where 700,344 barrels were pumped, but only 695,535 barrels was received.

Concerning products pipeline losses, the report also said the pipeline at A/Cove-Mosimi and A/Cove-Idimu- Satellite from where 192,590 cubic metre of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) was pumped but only 170,482 cubic metre of PMS was received resulting in a loss of 22,108 cubic metres  or N2,946,554,240. Another loss of N1,366,919,680 was recorded from the Mosimi-Ibadan pipeline while the Port Harcourt– Aba pipeline suffered a loss of N58,201,777, all amounting to N4,371,675,696.64 loss to the federation account.