Oil Theft: We discovered 295 illegal connections to Our pipelines, says NNPC

Our reporter| The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says it discovered 295 illegal connections to its pipeline.

NNPC Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari made this disclosure at a Legislative Transparency & Accountability Summit in Abuja on Wednesday, organised by the House of Representatives Anti-Corruption Committee with the theme, ‘Enhancing Transparency & Accountability in the Oil & Gas Sector’.

“We have seen thousands of illegal refineries that we have taken down in the last 45 months. We have seen connection in a 200-kilometer line. we have up to 295 illegal connections to our pipelines and many of them have been there for years,” Kyari said.

Kyari said as a result of oil theft, production equally came down to about 1.1 million barrels from 1.8 million about January of last year.

He, however, made it clear that not all the oil were stolen, explaining that “companies will stop injecting oil into the pipeline the moment they discover that they cannot get to the terminal”.