In its determination to sustain petroleum products delivery, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said it is planning a second pipeline to link the Atlas Cove in Lagos with the Mosimi depot.
The corporation�s Group Managing Director (GMD), Engr. Funso Kupolokun, said in Abuja yesterday, that the planned off-shore pipeline would be difficult to vandalise.
�We are in the process of laying a fresh line mainly offshore, from the Atlas Cove to Mosimi, but it is a separate project,� he said.
On kerosene scarcity, Kupolokun said it would linger until repairs were completed on vandalised products� pipeline.
He said: �The problem in kerosene supply is that the Atlas Cove/Mosimi product pipeline has been severely vandalised in several places, including the Ijegun limits.�
He also said many cargoes of kerosene had since berthed in the country’s shores awaiting discharge.
�As at today, we have 18 cargos of kerosene out there but we cannot bring them in because of the deficiencies of the Atlas cove/Mosimi line.
�Until we completely repair the Atlas cove/Mosimi line, we will continue to have this problem. That is the only in-shore reception platform right now. Mosimi is severely vandalised.
�We are keeping stock on water (marine stock) and we need a minimum of 30 days sufficiency to be comfortable. Anytime we go below 30 days, there must be a problem,� he said.
Kupolokun said the NNPC had only 20-day supply and much of it was on floating cargoes.
He said his discussions Monday with the management of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) centred on the Shanomi Creeks and Atlas cove/Mosimi products pipeline.
�We have decided that we should �section� 13 km of the Atlas cove/Mosimi line, spoon that out and then weld. But that takes weeks. There are several other areas where the pipe had been vandalised that we thought we could do without necessarily sectioning,� Kupolokun said.
The NNPC boss also said there was a problem during trial test when the first sectioning was completed.
�We could not go beyond 400 cubic metres per hour during pumping when really, we could do up to 1,000 cubic metres per hour. And, because of that, we have several ships out there that we cannot off-load from.
�As I talk, we do not have the products in our depots at Ibadan, Ore, Ilorin, even for Mosimi. We are struggling and yet we have cargoes out there. There is a need to pump in the product to all the depots. We must deliver the products,� Kupolokun said.
According to him, if the products are available at the Suleja depot, �we can have them in Abuja in a matter of hours.�
�We are trying to section another 20 km and that would take us a few weeks and until we do that the situation may not abate. Nobody is happy but we have to be sectioning the pipeline and it takes weeks, and it is because people will not leave Mosimi line alone.
�They continue to vandalise the pipe. We will section the whole line but this time we will bury it deeper. Until people leave us to do our job and stop punching our line, product supply will remain epileptic,� he said.
Jul252007