Vandalims remains a big challenge for the management of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which is charged with the responsibility of crude oil, gas and petroleum products pipelines administration in Nigeria. The Corporation, in its determination to address the menace, recently deployed some mechanisms to frustrate activities of vandals.
Most Nigerians have not been receiving steady electricity supply and this has been attributed to regular destruction of pipelines supplying gas to the power thermal stations across Nigeria.
The Corporation adopted the use of Horizontal Directional Drilling, HDD technology, to bury crude oil and petroleum products pipelines across the country. The technology, which is the latest in the industry, will bury the pipelines very deep below the surface.
Recent gas shortages have seen a drop in electricity generation in Nigeria and the NNPC Group Managing Director, Mr Andrew Yakubu, says over 30 % of the installed gas supply capacity was out as a result of vandalism.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has charged all gas companies operating in the country to find lasting solutions to the persistent shortage of the product to energise the power plants. Nebo, who spoke at a forum aimed at identifying and resolving the causes of the incessant interruption of gas to the electricity plants, challenged stakeholders to regard power issues as national emergency.
He lamented that vandalism has only worsened the existing situation, wherein government has been doing its best to ensure full utilisation of the nation’s abundant gas resources.
