Kpo Fire Operators Back Down On Pipeline Vandalisation

Operators of artisanal oil refineries’ in the Niger Delta have promised to discontinue all attacks on crude oil pipeline installations where crude for local refining known in the region as “Kpo fire”, is sourced.
The National President of the Domestic Refinery Owners Association of Nigeria (Artisanal Refiners), Mr Godwin Sunday, made this declaration while addressing newsmen at a recent event in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital.
Sunday said that Kpo fire operators were prepared to pay for crude oil sourced officially from oil companies only if the Federal Government would back up their plan to set up modular refineries in the region.
He urged the Federal Government to create a policy for artisanal refiners in the Niger Delta just as it created the artisanal miners programmes for local miners in the northern Nigeria.
He also called on the government to “provide guarantee for the refiners to the tune of $15 million per refinery”, for the 10 units of 1,000 barrels per day planned by the group for the Niger Delta states.
The artisanal refiners president said, working with the government would enable them normalise their capacity while contributing to the economy of the country.
He disclosed that the group has agreed to “leave the creeks as soon as the Federal Government accedes to their request, They will not engage in ‘Kpo fire’ again, that they will use more modern refineries which they are able to make and then refine for the country. And then that they will not break the pipes of crude oil.

Tonye Nria-Dappa