Hopes of early repairs of the Escravos/Warri Trunkline might have been truncated as the Igbokodo-Urhobo community allegedly demanded the payment of N40m before allowing the contractor handling the work to gain access to the site.
A reliable source told our correspondent that the contracting firm, De�Wayles International Limited, was asked to pay homage to the community with N40m to facilitate its access to the site.
The pipeline, measuring 58 kilometres from Escravos to Warri, supplies gas to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria and other industrial consumers nationwide.
It was vandalised on Saturday by suspected oil bunkerers in Igbokodo- Urhobo, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.
It supplied 180m cubic feet of gas per day to PHCN and other establishments before it was initially ruptured at 30 locations by the warlords in the creeks of Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State in February 2006.
The gas flow line belonging to the Nigerian Gas Company, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, was scheduled for inauguration on Monday before the latest development on Saturday.
A reliable source told our correspondent that the illegal oil operators acted on the premise that the pipeline was the one that conveyed crude oil.
The Chairman of De�Wayles, Chief Victor Egukawhore, had told our correspondent on the phone on Sunday that the repair of the fresh damages would take three days, adding, �It is a minor job and it will not require major equipment to do.�
However, reports available to our correspondent from NGC on Wednesday showed that early repair of the pipeline was not visible as the community insisted on the payment of N40m before De�Wayles could carry out repair works in the area.
A reliable source in NGC told our correspondent that meetings between De�Wayles and representatives of the community in the aftermath of the incident could not agree on the way forward on the matter.
He said, �The community has demanded N40m as homage before the De�Wayles can repair the damaged portion of the pipeline. But the position of the company is that we are not paying because the pipeline was wilfully damaged by some persons that the community should know.
�There is no agreement yet on the matter at the meetings held so far between the contractor and the community. The contactor merely paid sitting allowances to the representatives of the community at the meetings.
�There are indications that the community will review the position and another meeting has been slated to trash out the matter. But the NGC is not prepared to pay a dime.�