The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) have denied any plan to set up a pipeline protection agency.
Mr Tumini Green, Acting Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Abuja made the clarification in a statement made available to journalists on Friday in Abuja.
“NNPC and its downstream subsidiary, PPMC, are not privy to any plan by the Federal Government to set up an agency or commission to protect the pipelines as reported.
“This clarification has become necessary against the backdrop of reports claiming that the corporation has confirmed that there are plans to set up a pipeline protection agency.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state emphatically that no member of the corporation’s top management has attended any meeting where the idea to set up a Pipelines Protection Commission or any agency by whatsoever name to protect the nation’s pipelines was mooted.
“Any report claiming that the corporation is aware of such proposal or in support of it is a figment of the imagination of the reporter,” it stated.
However, the corporation stated that it had been exploring the options of collaborating with the security agencies and communities to curtail the menace of pipeline sabotage.
It noted that significant achievements had been recorded in this regard with the successful rehabilitation of the Aba, Port Harcourt, Warri, Benin and the Atlas Cove Mosimi Pipelines through the collaboration of the security agencies, especially the Nigerian Army Engineers Corps while the JTF had been of great help in tackling the menace in the Niger Delta.
“We sincerely believe that these efforts and the engagements we are having with the communities will help check and eventually end pipeline vandalism. We neither believe in nor support the establishment of any agency for the specific purpose of protecting pipelines,” it stated.