Stakeholders bemoan N0.64trn spent on pipeline maintenance in 5 years

Nigerians and industry stakeholders have lamented the whopping sum of N649billion spent on pipeline maintenance by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in just 5 years and 5 months.

The nation’s 5,001km of pipeline network which is managed by a subsidiary of NNPC, Pipelines, and Product Marketing Company (PPMC), between January 2015 to May 2020, gulped N649billion for maintenance, a figure higher than N617.56 billion capital allocated to the Health Sector in 13years.

Checks, however, showed that NNPC recorded 10, 257 total breakpoint of pipelines in the country during the period under review.

Specifically, in 2015, N2.83 billion was spent on pipeline maintenance but reduced to N2.56 billion in 2016, and further declined to N1.12 billion the following. However, went up to N2.048 billion in 2019.

In 2019, the agency spent a lower amount of N1.484 billion on pipeline maintenance, and in just five months this year, a total sum of N213 million has already expended on pipeline maintenance.

Although, the surge in the cost of pipeline maintenance has always been attributed to the high level of vandalism along with the pipeline network, which has caused a negative value creation to the country’s oil and gas industry.

Commenting on the figure which was revealed in an official twitter page of Advocator of Accountability and Transparency in Nigeria, an oil expert, Dr. Chiwuike Uba, said, “This shows that there’s a policy thrust, we know where the government is going from their expenditure pattern, it’s obvious that the fact about the importance of the health sector, the education sector is a mere word that had no implementations.

“Looking at the fact that NNPC is spent N649billion on pipeline maintenance compare to N617billion capital allocated to the health sector in 13 years shows that there is no clear policy from the government to ensure the health sector receive adequate attention, things are just said to get the populace happy.

“Meanwhile, the expenditure on pipeline maintenance of N649 billion spent, clearly, by the time we begin to decouple that amount, we’ll find out that they didn’t spend up to 10 percent of N649 billion on pipeline maintenance.

“Over 80 percent of N649 billion will be found under some people’s private purse which is typical of Nigeria’s issue. But the worrisome thing there is also that when we’re doing all these things we’re taking the country over 50 years backward which is why some people keep saying Nigeria is no longer a developing country but an under developing country.

“Our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which has been contracted by 6.5 percent is equivalent to our 2021 budget, which also boosted the contraction on the economy is the purchasing power and well being of people which has been reduced by such percentage.

“The government priority is not on health, not on social sector either because expenditure shows what their priorities are,” he added.

In a tweet by Mr. Seyi Ajayi @evidencebyme, he said, “How are other countries monitoring their pipeline? Technology and straight policy, government care, presence, and sense of belonging in a place where the pipeline passed should be prioritized.

Also, in a tweet by Hexane, @OB_Hexane, he said, “A lot of things are wrong in this our dear country, these pipelines pass-through villages, communities, which we can spend less if we engage the teeming youths who need jobs to mount surveillance and protect those national assets.”