NNPC uncovers sabotaged pipeline | cries out about Oil vandalism

The management of Port Harcourt Refining Company said on Wednesday that it had uncovered a major sabotaged pipeline at Okariama in Okrika Local Government Area of Rivers state.

The company's acting Managing Director, Mr Vitalis Ugochukwu, told newsmen in Okrika that the company also uncovered another 700m pipe illegally used by vandals to siphon products from the sabotaged pipelines.

Ugochukwu decried the high rate of pipeline vandalism, especially between the refinery and the jetty, where it evacuated products through ship-loading, adding that the crime had increased in 2013.

According to him, it is almost a daily occurrence, in terms of what is lost, it is not something I can give you immediately but it is in the neighbourhood of 200- 500 cubic metres of product.

"In the recent times, we are hearing of connections of lines to the main lines; we are talking about two to three inches lines underneath our own pipelines and then extended to illegal jetties," Ugochukwu said.

He said that the negative effect of the pipeline vandalism in the effectiveness of the company could not be over-emphasised.