By Emmanuel Nduka
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has disclose that so far, it has discovered 295 illegal connections to its pipeline.
The disclosure was made on Wednesday in Abuja by NNPC Ltd Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari during a Legislative Transparency & Accountability Summit.
“We have seen thousands of illegal refineries that we have taken down in the last 45 months. We have seen connection in a 200 kilometre line. we have up to 295 illegal connections to our pipelines and many of them have been there for years,” he said.
The summit was organised by the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee with the theme, ‘Enhancing Transparency & Accountability in the Oil & Gas Sector’.
Kyari added that as a result of oil theft, production equally came down to about 1.1 million barrels from 1.8 million about January of last year.
He further made it clear that not all the oil were stolen, explaining that “companies will stop injecting oil into the pipeline the moment they discover that they cannot get to the terminal”.
The Nigerian Government had engaged Tantita Security Services Limited, a private security firm owned by Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo, in a N4.5bn monthly deal to protect oil pipelines across the Niger Delta region.
