Total Trains 500 OML 58 Host Community Stakeholders On Vandalism 

No fewer than 500 persons, comprising youth leaders, community leaders and traditional rulers from oil and pipeline bearing OML 58 host communities in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, have been trained by Total E&P Limited.
The training workshop, held at Tropicana Hotel,  Ahoada, Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State, last Friday, was in response to the high rate of pipeline vandalism in OML 58 communities.
Addressing the participants at the workshop, General Manager, Community Affairs, Projects and Developments, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, Mr. Obinna Ofoezie, said vandalism was an act of violating the safety and functional integrity of a petroleum pipeline for political, economic or other reasons such as corruption, armed criminality and violence which, he said, often resulted in losses for the company and the country.
He noted that in the course of oil pipeline vandalism, human lives, money, property and even the crude itself had been lost.
Ofoezie, who was represented by Mr Nwokoezi Ikoro of Total E&P, said vandalism oftentimes was motivated by greed and the intention to steal.
He said the act of vandalising oil pipelines usually came with untold consequences on the environment such as environmental degradation and groundwater contamination, with the rural population, whose main occupations were fishing and farming, as the worst victims.
He said the workshop was meant to educate leaders of the various communities hosting OML 58 that any act of vandalism carried out in their communities would invariably affect individuals, the communities, local government, the state government and the nation at large.
He expressed hope that vandalism in all communities hosting OML 58 would be a thing of the past after the seminar.
Facilitators at the seminar, Dr Andy Ozor and Engr. Abraham Odogwu of Sulan Services Limited, regretted  that all measures taken by government and oil multinationals to stop vandalism had not been successful because members of the communities had not been involved in the surveillance and protection of petroleum pipelines.
The two facilitators, in their lecture on ‘Stopping Oil and Gas Facilities/Pipeline Vandalism’, charged the community stakeholders to take formidable actions that would put an end to vandalism in their areas.
They recommended that pipeline protection could be achieved through community-based surveillance and speedy prosecution of oil theft cases by special courts.
Some of the participants who spoke to The Tide, thanked Total for the education on the dangers of vandalism and promised to pass down the information to other youths in their communities.
A youth leader from Ihuaji in Ahoada East Local Government Area, Mr Chimezunum Uzomadu, noted however, that not all damages to oil installations were as a result of vandalism.
According to him, some damages were due to equipment failure and called on oil multinationals to regularly maintain their facilities and installations.

By: Tonye Nria-Dappa