THE Senate has endorsed the N48billion oil pipeline surveillance contract by the Federal Government to Mr. Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo), a former Niger Delta militant leader.
According to Chairman of the Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Senator Albert Akpan, who spoke to journalists shortly after presenting the report of Senate ad hoc Committee on oil lifting, theft and the impact on petroleum production and oil revenues, there was nothing wrong engaging non-state actors to secure oil pipelines as long as the contract was yielding desired results.
He said oil theft has reduced the country’s oil production capacity and resulted in the loss of about $2billion revenue since the beginning of the year.
Bassey said that major export facilities, such as the Bonny and Forcados Terminals, were shut down for a over seven months due to pipeline vandalism and oil theft, noting, however, that the recent pipeline surveillance contract to address oil theft was yielding positive results, as the country’s oil production capacity has increased.
“There are both formal and informal approaches to solving the issue. If that contract was contracted duly and processed, we don’t have any issue with it and if it yields desired outcomes, I don’t think there is anything wrong in it.
“We commend the NNPCL for the action, as we speak, the Forcados terminals have restored 500,000 barrels a day to our national production. Just about five days ago, the first 87,000 barrels a day was received at the Bonny Terminals. So, things are getting better.
“This means that the abridged intervention done recently by government has yielded positive results, because the production would have been shortened and you could imagine the effect on investment, because investors will hold back if they cannot derive maximum profits from their investments,” he said.
Earlier, the senate at plenary adopted recommendations of the ad-hoc committee, including that the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) should resume full regulatory oversight of all existing crude oil terminals in Nigeria.
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