Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has revealed the shocking amount of money Nigeria loses to pipeline vandalization daily as militants resume hostilities in the oil rich Niger-delta region of Nigeria.
Minister of Works, Power and Housing, babatunde Fashola, has made a shocking revelation on how much the country loses to pipeline vandalization on a daily basis. He revealed that the attack on the Nigeria Gas Company’s pipeline connected to Chevron Nigeria Limited’s facility at Escravos at the weekend cost the country a whooping N470 million daily.
This was revealed in a statement signed by Hakeem Bello, media aide to Fashola. The statement reads: “The sabotaged gas pipeline which contributes to the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) has led to a loss of 160mmsfcd of gas daily. At a cost of $2.50 per thousand scf, this loss means about $400,000 loss to the country on a daily basis (N78,800,000 daily) in gas volume.
“This is in addition to losses to be incurred daily from affected Power generation ($1,988,223 or N391,680,000 daily). The total daily loss to the country is therefore estimated at N470,479,931. Repairs of the damaged pipeline is estimated as costing ($609,137 or N120,000.000).
“The real sector of the economy has also been counting its losses as some cement companies around Olorunsogo like Ewekoro and Ibese are also affected.
“The latest incident has occurred just as the Federal Government through the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources along with allied agencies has been making concerted efforts to improve gas supplies to the Power Plants.
“Such efforts led to previously offline plants like Ihovbor and Sapele coming back online and the subsequent output making up for the loss in power. The pipelines are being actively monitored for further attacks or other unforeseen impacts.
“Available records show that six incidences of vandalism from December 2014 to February 2015 which affected the Trans Forcados Pipeline (at Oben, Sapele, Oredo) and Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (CNL) led to a loss of 1,100 MMScfd. According to industry experts, a loss of 200 MMscd is equivalent to a Power reduction of 700MW.
“While the industry is currently generating about 4120Mwh/h on average (as at 17/01/2016), it is without doubt that performance would have been better without the additional setback caused by the weekend’s incident.
“In response to this, NNPC is forming a committee NNPC, Police, JTF (which includes Army, Airfoce and Navy) and also community vigilante groups, who have been tasked with the responsibility of securing these pipelines,” he said.