El-RUFAI CRITICIZES SERAP FOR THREATENING TO SUE THE FG AFTER FINDING ILLEGAL OIL PIPELINES

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has come under fire from Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai, the executive governor of Kaduna State, for threatening to sue the government of President Muhammadu Buhari over the discovery of unauthorized oil pipelines.

A loading port that had been operating covertly for the previous nine years was also discovered, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), which made the announcement last week.

This was stated by NNPC Limited's group CEO, Mele Kyari, on Tuesday when he testified before the senate's joint committees on gas and petroleum (upstream and downstream).

He claims that, "Oil theft in the country has been going on for over 22 years but the dimension and rate it assumed in recent times is unprecedented. The Brass, Forcados, and the Bonny terminals, are all practically doing zero production today; the combined effect is that you have lost 600,000 barrels per day when you do a reality test.

As a result of oil theft, Nigeria loses about 600,000 barrels per day, which is not healthy for the nation's economy, and in particular, the legal operators in the field, which had led to a close down of some of their operational facilities.

But in rising to the highly disturbing challenge, NNPCL has in recent times in collaboration with relevant security agencies, clamped down on the economic saboteurs.

In the course of the clamp down within the last six weeks. 395 Illegal refineries have been deactivated, 274 reservoirs destroyed, 1, 561 metal tanks destroyed, 49 trucks seized and the most striking of all is the four-kilometre illegal oil connection line from Forcados Terminal into the sea which had been in operation undetected for nine solid years."