NNPC stops pumping crude to Kaduna, Warri refineries
Chineme Okafor in Abuja with agency report

As security agencies intensify their search for the culprits behind the act, it has been established that the weekend’s attack on the Nigeria Gas Company’s pipeline connected to Chevron Nigeria Limited’s facility at Escravos, will impact negatively on the Olorunsogo power plant with a of capacity 600megawatts, and other power plants in the country.
The attack on the pipeline has equally prevented the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) from pumping crude oil to two of its four refineries in Kaduna and Warri.
The sabotaged gas pipeline which contributes to the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS), according to a statement signed by Hakeem Bello, the Special Adviser, Communication to the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has led to a loss of 160mmsfcd of gas daily.
At a cost of $2.50 per thousand scf, this loss means about $400,000 loss to the country on a daily basis (N78,800,000 daily) in gas volume.
This is in addition to losses to be incurred daily from affected power generation ($1,988,223 or N391,680,000 daily).
The total daily loss to the country is therefore estimated at N470,479,931. Repairs of the damaged pipeline is estimated as costing ($609,137 or N120,000,000).
The real sector of the economy has also been counting its losses as some cement companies around Olorunsogo like Ewekoro and Ibese are also affected.
The latest incident has occurred just as the federal government through the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources along with allied agencies have been making concerted efforts to improve gas supplies to the power plants.
Such efforts led to previously offline plants like Ihovbor and Sapele coming back online and the subsequent output making up for the loss in power.
The pipelines are being actively monitored for further attacks or other unforeseen impacts.
Available records show that six incidents of vandalism from December 2014 to February 2015 which affected the Trans Forcados Pipeline (at Oben, Sapele, Oredo) and Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (CNL) led to a loss of 1,100 MMScfd.
According to industry experts, a loss of 200 MMscfd is equivalent to a Power reduction of 700MW.
While the industry is currently generating about 4120Mwh/h on average as at Sunday, it is without doubt that performance would have been better without the additional setback caused by the weekend’s incident.
During the monthly meeting by Fashola with operators in the power sector and the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC), the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the GACN led by the Minister of State of Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, last week shared information on significant gas projects that will improve gas supply which are scheduled for completion in Q2 of 2016 and also highlighted some of the challenges especially related to security affecting delivery of gas to the power sector.
In response to this, the NNPC is forming a committee - NNPC, police, JTF (which includes army, air force and navy) and also community vigilante groups, who have been tasked with the responsibility of securing these pipelines.
Meanwhile, spokesman of the NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, has confirmed that the attacks on key oil installations in the Niger Delta have prevented the corporation from pumping crude oil to two of its four refineries in Kaduna and Warri
Alegbe, who spoke with Reuters, said the situation was frustrating the government’s hopes to start weaning the country from expensive imports.
He said: “We have shut down flows for now, the military are on top of the matter.”
The 125,000 barrel per day (bpd) Warri refinery and the 110,000bpd Kaduna refinery had reportedly resumed production in December after several months of repair works.
The Kaduna refinery receives its feedstock oil through the Warri refinery.
Nigeria also has a third refining complex with two plants in Port Harcourt, although only the newer of the two plants is currently functioning.
No group claimed responsibility for the weekend attacks, which followed last week’s arrest warrant for former militant leader turned businessman, Government Ekpemupolo, also known as Tompolo, as part of a crackdown on corruption. Equally, several former top government officials have been charged with fraud.
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