PIPELINE vandals and communities, which the facility traversed, have put the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company (WRPC) out of production.
While the vandals have destroyed the Escravos-Warri pipeline, which supply crude oil to the plant in 24 separate areas, the communities are demanding for more projects before they allow engineers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to repair them.
The refinery was first shut down last year following the destruction of the trunk line with explosives by persons suspected to be militants.
According to the Operations Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Wale Biya, the NNPC engineers, who went to effect repairs, discovered additional 24 vandalised spots after they had repaired the major point destroyed with explosives.
“There were 19 vandalised spots. Government successfully repaired one point. Then members of a community near the site led NNPC to discover two new vandalised spots. Then later, another five spots were discovered on the same pipeline supplying crude oil to the Warri refinery making it 25 vandalised spots,” Biya said.
He said that the unfriendly nature of the communities around the vandalised spots had made repairs difficult for the NNPC as they kept requesting for more projects before they would allow the corporation repair the other damaged spots.
Similarly, NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr. Funso Kupolokun has condemned the activities of the vandals. He lamented that the nation’s four refineries could not function effectively because of the vandalism of the pipelines.
Biya, who was particularly miffed by the scarcity of the products after the strike in Delta State, said the DPR Warri Zone was doing everything possible to ensure that petrol was sold at the official price of N70 per litre.
He said that some marketers who were still selling above the pump price alleged that they sourced their products from outside Warri.
Biya said the DPR was inundated with complaints after the strike that filing stations were selling products above the pump price. He said the DPR would do everything within its powers to ensure that marketers complied with the approved rate.
On his part, Kupolokun said Nigeria’s long term objective of attaining sustainable fuel supply was being hampered by the incessant vandalism of pipelines supplying the products. In the last six months, he said none of the nation’s four refineries had been working as a result of the activities of the vandals.
Kupolokun stated this yesterday at the combined ceremonies of the 43rd and 44th classes of the Chief Officers’ Management Development Programme (COMDP) in Abuja. He said because of the non-functional nature of the refineries, other parts of the country have to depend on Lagos for product supply.
The NNPC boss’ declaration came as the queues continue to lengthen in Abuja, the federal capital. As early as 6.00 a.m., most filling stations in the city were taken over by anxious motorists. It was learnt that the situation was so bad that some people have to spend the night at fuel outlets.
But Kupolokun said that with the imminent repairs of the Shanomi creeks, which would be completed by August this year, supply of fuel products to Kaduna and Warri refineries would resume fully, adding, “in the last six months, the pipelines have been seriously vandalised, as a result we couldn’t pump fuel to Mosimi.”
He said the nation had to depend largely on imported products noting that to meet its demands, NNPC had resorted to the reserves on the high sea.
The NNPC’s General Manager (Public Affairs), Dr. Levi Ajuonuma had earlier assured that there was enough stock to satisfy the national demand beyond 40 days, stressing that there was no need to embark on panic buying, while the distribution system was steadily becoming normal.
Asked to speak on the plans to build additional filling stations in Abuja, Kupolokun said as soon as the logistics were concluded, the projects would take off.
He said the long queues in Lagos should also be expected. According to him, “the products are there, but once you have a strike, it takes some days to clear the backlog of what you have lost as a result of the strike. Therefore, in another day or two, we expect the situation to return to normal”, advising “Nigerians to avoid panic buying of petrol”.