Less than two day the federal government gave an indication of setting up a special paramilitary force to tackle the intractable militancy in Niger Delta, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) exploration and production subsidiary, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), has released a report showing that government lost N1.5 trillion to attacks on its facilities between January and now.
Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, disclosed this at the opening ceremony of the 2016 NNPC Security Awareness Week in Abuja.
The theme of the ongoing Week is ‘NNPC Security: A Task for All Stakeholders’.
Baru lamented the rising spate of criminality in the society at large and in the oil and gas industry in particular leading to loss of much needed revenue.
He said “At industry level, we are all conversant with the seriousness and frequency with which national assets in form of pipelines, flow stations, among others, are vandalised and crude oil and white products stolen with impunity.
“In 2016 (January to date), for example, NPDC alone recorded 59 security incidents resulting in crude production shut down/deferment and revenue loss of over N1.5 trillion,” the GMD lamented.
Baru said this is time for all Nigerians to do everything possible to help protect national assets, adding that governments at various levels are doing much to fight criminality and that success can only be achieved when all stakeholders imbibe the consciousness that security is a task for everyone.
According to him, “At corporate level, you are all aware that the first item on my 12 Focus Areas is security. This is in recognition of the imperative that without assurances of safety, NNPC, the oil and gas industry, and indeed the country, cannot achieve appreciable growth to assure citizens of decent and productive lives,” he stated.
