Chineme Okafor
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has described the impact of oil pipeline vandalism on the Nigerian economy as severe and damaging.
NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has therefore appealed to oil pipeline vandals to desist from such act.
He said it was not only harmful to the economy, but equally hazardous to the pipeline vandals and the environment.
A statement from the Group General Manager, Public Affairs of the NNPC, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu in Abuja, stated that Baru, said this when he received a delegation of the Nigerian Environmental Society (NES) in his office for a business meeting.
He noted that the ugly incident of petroleum pipeline vandalism presented a ‘loss-loss’ scenario for the vandal, the environment and the economy.
Baru, equally said the NNPC was commitment to standard practices in Health Safety and Environment (HSE) in the oil industry, noting that the corporation does not embark on any project without a duly certified Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report.
“All our projects also go through commissioning and decommissioning and we do it in accordance with prevailing world standards and our environmental practices are in line with the latest International Standard Organisation (ISO) specification,†Baru said in the statement.
He also stated that the corporation will consider HSE as a priority before it executes the recent multiple upstream investment agreements it negotiated with some of its Joint Venture (JV) partners.
“Be rest assured that if there is just one company that would be environmentally compliant in the industry, it is definitely going to be NNPC,†Baru stated.
The statement equally noted that the National Vice President of NES, Mrs. Dorothy Bassey, in her remarks commended the NNPC for its recent signing of alternative funding agreements with JV partners and the re-invigoration of its anti-corruption unit.
Bassey said the NES was willing to forge a symbiotic relationship with the NNPC to address all the concerns that comes with the day-day operations in the NNPC as well as the oil and gas industry in general.
