The Group Managing Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd., Mele Kyari, and the Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor on Friday declared that an extensive investigation will be conducted into the newly discovered illegal pipeline.
The PUNCH reports that the illegal pipeline is attached by yet-to-be-identified culprits to the Trans Escravos pipeline at Yorke Flow Station in the Ogulagha oil field of Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State.
This, according to them, is to identify the perpetrators and sanction them according to the provisions of the law.
They claimed preliminary investigation showed that the illegal pipeline led to an illegal loading point in the creeks where large quantities of crude oil are allegedly being diverted and stolen.
Speaking on the discovery, the Chief of Defence Staff declared, “This is an eye opener. We are going to ensure an extensive investigation into the whole revelation to get to the roots to review the entire security architecture across the board, among other issues.”
Also speaking, Kyari says, “The illegal attachments on the Trans Escravos pipeline are professionally done and the result is that they connected this to an inactive pipeline which should not carry crude in a normal instance.
“And we have seen that this line flow all the way parallel to the two other active Trans Escravos pipelines. And this is a good revelation.
“That is why the Chief of Defence Staff has said very clearly that an extensive
investigation will be conducted. Anyone involved in this matter, either from the host community, community contractors, government security agencies, or workers of the oil companies including NNPC and Shell. Anyone that is involved in this will be dealt with by the law.
“We are presently getting massive support from the intervention of the government security agencies notably the Nigerian Navy, Nigerian Air Force, Nigerian Army, the NSCDC, etc as we have seen massive campaigns in this regard as coordinated by the Chief of Defence Staff. The intervention is paying off.”
Also speaking, Chief Keston Pondy, the Chief Executive of the newly contracted private security company, Tanita Security Services, said from the look of things, the incident had been on for a very long time.
He said, “To get to this level is not easy. We were hinted at the two illegal attachments that were foiled. We are still escalating. We are combing this lineup from Ogidigben to Idaho.
“This particular one inspected by the NNPC CEO team is located at Yorke Flow Station. Only God knows how many more points we are going to see as we go further. As of this moment, we have discovered 15 points so far.
Source: Punch