THE Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed on July 6, 2021 said the Federal Government spends N60 billion yearly to repair vandalised pipelines.
Mohammed made this statement during a Town Hall Meeting on Protecting Oil and Gas held in Abuja.
“I do not intend to take the wind out of the sail of the experts who will speak on this issue, but with an average of 200,000 barrels per day lost to the wanton damage to pipelines and a huge amount of N60 billion yearly to repair and maintain the vandalised points, one can only imagine the impact on the economy,” he stated.
Mohammed did not give a reference point, however The FactCheckHub checked the cost for pervious year.
THE FINDINGS
Nigeria is part of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Petroleum product (crude oil) contributes largely to its revenue generation.
It is regarded as the largest oil producer in Africa, and 13th globally.
Revenue from Nigeria’s oil exports, according to OPEC accounts for about 86 per cent of the country’s export proceeds.
To verify the cost of pipeline repairs and maintenance The FactCheckHub checked the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) performance data.
The performance data comprises of NNPC Audited Financial Statements, NNPC Monthly FAAC Reports, National Crude Oil & Natural Gas Production, Lifting and Utilization, Refinery Operations, Petroleum Product Supply & Distribution, Budget Performance Report and Federation Crude Oil & Gas Revenue.
However, the monthly FAAC (Federation Account Allocation Committee) reports were the focus.
The FactCheckHub looked at the reports for the year 2020. The report of activities and transactions for each month is due the following month, which means the details of the activities done in December 2019 would be in January 2020 report. Hence, the reporter checked through deductions for pipeline repairs and maintenance from February 2020 to January 2021 reports.
In each month, the amount stated under the subhead ‘pipeline repairs and maintenance cost’ were added and they summed up to N53.36bn.
The breakdown: January N5.48bn, February N6.74bn, March N7.69bn, April N7.84bn, May N7.99bn, June N6.24bn, July N1.8bn, August N1.49bn, September recorded no expense, October N4.41bn, November N3.68bn and December also recorded no expense.
Meanwhile, for 2019, the Vanguard Newspaper reported the cost to be N127 billion
While 2017 and 2018 were N129.87bn and 137.44bn according to The Cable.
Daily Trust Newspaper reported that N112bn and N103bn were the costs in 2016 and 2015 respectively.
