Kayode Sesan
Crude oil pipelines in Niger Delta have been shut following a series of attacks late last week, the state-controlled Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said Tuesday.
“We shut in the pipelines as a result of the weekend development, please note that this is different from shut down,” NNPC spokesman Ohi Alegbe told Anadolu Agency, referring to the pipelines that carry crude oil to refineries.
He denied claims that refineries in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria, and Warri, an oil hub in Delta State, had been shut down in the wake of three bombings between Thursday and Saturday.
“The military has waded in and they are trying to bring the situation under control,” Alegbe added. “They consider it as an act of economic sabotage. But our production is still on. Once they give us the go-ahead to fix the pipelines, we will mobilize our engineers.”
He did not say what effect the shutting of pipelines had had on the volume of crude refined locally or whether it would alter the January timeline set for Nigeria to hit 10 million liters of locally refined petrol.
The military has pledged to put an end to the attacks, which echo last decade’s militant campaign that nearly caused the collapse of oil exploration between 2006 and 2009.
“There is no way we will fold our hands and allow the criminals to get away with it,” Alani Okunlola, commander of a joint task force, said over the weekend.
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