Alive to Challenges

Fri, Mar 15, 2013

By publisher

3 MIN READ

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has made bold efforts to rehabilitate some of its burst pipelines and depots located in some part of the country

|  By Maureen Chigbo  |  Mar. 25, 2013 @01:00 GMT

EFFORTS by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to tackle the challenges in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry has fetched it some commendations. The corporation has rehabilitated some of the burst pipelines and depots in the country as part of the mandate given to it by Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum resources, to ensure that the refineries function at optimum capacity.

The Petroleum Tanker Drivers arm of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, on Thursday, March 14, lauded Andrew Yakubu, group managing director, NNPC,  for the  great work he is doing in rehabilitating the nation’s pipelines.

The union expressed its appreciation when a delegation, led by Timothy Ogbu, its  chairman, visited NNPC headquarters.  Ogbu said the union was very impressed with Yakubu’s effort in rehabilitating the pipelines and depots which had been giving all operators in the downstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry nightmares over the years.

“We want to thank the GMD for the successes recorded in this area and hope that the tempo will not only be sustained, but also improved upon in other areas that have been bedeviled in the industry such as the Aba – Makurdi – Yola line, the Ibadan – Ilorin line, and that of Warri – Kaduna –Jos – Gombe – Maiduguri”, Ogbu said.

The chairman said his union cherishes the cordial relationship between it and the NNPC and promised to ensure that the harmonious relationship is sustained for the good of all Nigerians.

On his part, Yakubu thanked the union leaders for recognising the efforts of his management in aggressively addressing the downstream infrastructure challenges, adding that the commendation was, for him and the corporation, a call to do more.

“We can’t achieve optimum capacity utilisation in the refineries without having the pipelines and depots in good shape for effective product evacuation and distribution, that is why we are fixing them so that by the time we complete the rehabilitation of the refineries, we won’t have any problem with distribution and storage,” Yakubu said.

The NNPC helmsman said the corporation was deploying the horizontal directional drilling technology at all the trouble spots where pipeline sabotage and products theft are rife across the country, adding that the process has already been flagged off at Arepo.

He thanked the tanker drivers for their support in moving over 1,000 trucks of petroleum products across the country daily at that critical period last year when the System 2B Pipeline was down.