Rivers
Oil Theft Stalls Bonny Terminal From Functioning
Pipelines, particularly those around the Bonny Terminal cannot function due to the activities of criminals.
The Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPMS) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Bala Wunti, stated this during a tour of the facilities of the NNPCL.
In a statement, Wunti described as high the number of barrels stolen per day, stating that the supposed 270 barrels per day to be loaded was no longer feasible due to theft.
Wunti stated further that oil theft had caused the Nigerian nation to lose 470,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil amounting to $7million monthly.
While lamenting the negative impact of pipeline vandalisation of crude oil production, gas supply, refineries operations among others, Wunti insisted that the siphoning of crude oil from the oil facilities affects the revenue of every stakeholder.
He said: “If you’re producing 30,000 barrels a day, every month, you get 1,940 barrels. So, what it means is that you can take it to 270 every four days. Calculate it in a month, you will have seven cargos on a million barrels, that’s seven million barrels.
“When you multiply seven million barrels by $100 that is $700 million lost per month, and about 150,000 barrels expected are differed; we are not producing due to security challenges.”
He noted that “the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) trunk line, TNP transnational pipeline, cannot be operated and it has been like this since March 3rd that we put in this.
“Just take your calculator; 150,000, it means if you want to arrive at 1 million barrels per day, it means every week, as a minimum, basically for one week alone, it’s four cargos, and four cargos is four million barrels. Four million barrels formula bar or $100 is $400 million.
“So, you can do your calculations by yourself, take whatever price you want, take this to multiply by the number of days that have been shortened since March 3rd.”
According to him, the impact of the activities of vandals causes low crude oil production, interrupted gas supply, countrywide interruption of distribution of petroleum products, refineries’ downtimes, increasing instability in the oil and gas market.
”I will tell you the major thing that affects us. Nigeria will suffer for it; the revenues are impacted, so we can only appeal to them to rein in themselves, the oil theft situation is regrettable.
It’s not going on across the whole of the Niger Delta, there are trunk lines that are more impacted on, I think the Bonny trunk line ranks highest”, he concluded.
By: Lady Godknows Ogbulu
The Rivers State Judiciary has denied a media report claiming that Justice Frank Onyiri of the State High Court issued an injunction order restraining the Sole Administrator, Vice Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd), from inaugurating the newly appointed members of the Rivers State Civil Service Commission (RSCSC).
In a statement issued by the Deputy Chief Registrar in charge of litigation at the High Court, Menenen Poromon (Esq), the state Judiciary disassociated itself from the report, describing it as malicious and fabricated.
The statement emphasized that the report was a falsehood and a misrepresentation of what transpeared in the court.
Poromon clarified that no such order was issued by Justice Onyiri or any other judge of the High Court of the state and urged the public to disregard the information, as it lacked any iota of truth.
The statement however advised the public to verify any information concerning the state Judiciary directly from the office of the Chief Registrar, High Court of the State, to avoid spreading of misinformation.