By Ngozi Onyeakusi– The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has recorded a total of 45,347 pipeline ruptures on its downstream pipeline network across the country between 2001 and half-year of 2019.

A statement by NNPC spokesman, Mr. Samson Makoji said Kyari made the revelation in Abuja at the inaugural of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative’s (NEITI) ‘Policy Dialogue.’

The group managing director who was represented at the event by the corporation’s chief operating officer, upstream, Mr Roland Ewubare also said oil theft remains a challenge in the industry despite some strong interventions in the past.

He said the gradual reduction in the incidence would be sustained through improved collaboration, implementation of global memoranda of understanding, and deployment of appropriate technologies, among other measures.

Kyari listed other measures to curb the menace to include a security architecture with single accountability for national critical infrastructure; industry and regulatory commitment to transparent crude oil and products accounting; realistic expectation by host communities; and emplacement of sustainable social investment mechanism.

He emphasised the need to inculcate shared values of integrity and transparency across every level of the governance structure for pipeline security, policy refill and enforcement of legal actions on economic saboteurs.

Kyari harped on the need to prioritize and instil in the nation’s teeming youth a sense of patriotism and national orientation.

On the immediate and remote causes of oil theft and pipeline vandalism, he said most stakeholders are of the view that oil theft is essentially a social problem which underlying causes include poverty in the communities, community-industry expectation mismatch and corruption.

Others, he noted are ineffective law enforcement, poor governance, poor prosecution of offenders, high unemployment in the communities, thriving illegal oil market involving both Nigerians and foreigners, and inadequate funding of resources to combat oil theft.

He said for the Nigerian economy to prosper, NNPC and other oil companies must be able to operate efficiently and profitably.

“Unfortunately, the combination of crude oil theft, illegal refining and pipeline vandalism, has become a major threat to Nigeria in meeting its revenue projections in recent time,” he said.

In his presentation, the governor of Edo State and Chairman of the National Economic Council (NEC) Ad Hoc Committee on Crude Oil Theft, Prevention and Control, Mr Godwin Obaseki, stressed the need to institute a proper governance structure for pipeline security in the Industry.

Obaseki called on the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) to work with the NNPC to identify international markets and destinations of stolen Nigerian crude oil.

He said the industry must end the prevailing incentives that make it possible for crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism to flourish.

The governor stated that NEC had upgraded the Ad Hoc Committee on Crude Theft to a standing committee with a mandate to provide regular updates to NEC as may be required.