697 Illegal Pipes Still Connected To NNPCL Petroleum Pipelines-Kyari

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.) Mr. Mele Kyari has revealed that 697 illegal pipes are still connected to the nations petroleum pipelines.

Speaking during an interactive session with the EFCC’s helmsman, Mr. Ola Olukoyede, which held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Monday, the NNPCL Chief Executive appealed to the EFCC to help tackle the menace of crude oil theft in the country.

On the efforts by NNPC Ltd to eradicate corruption from its system and stem crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, Kyari contended that going by the volume of oil stolen daily and the brazenness with which the perpetrators operate, crude oil theft was the most humongous and virulent economic crime in Nigeria that must attract the attention of the EFCC.

“As we continue to do our best to deepen transparency and stamp out corruption from the system, there is one big challenge that you will need to help us with, Mr. Chairman. That challenge is crude theft. It fits into everything you have said—the people, the asset, the opportunity, and the absence of deterrence.”

“We have deactivated 6,409 illegal refineries in the Niger Delta region. Today, we have disconnected up to 4,846 illegal pipes connected to our pipelines, that is out of 5,543 of such illegal connection points. That means there are a vast number of such connections that we have not removed,” the NNPCL Chief Executive lamented