Fresh explosion shuts down Escravos Pipeline

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, has directed that repair works should be executed immediately on the Escarvos to Lagos Pipeline (ELP) ruptured by an explosion on Thursday along Egbokodo-Omadino, in Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State to restore supplies from Escravos.

Dr. Baru further directed that gas supply from other sources like Oben, Oredo, Sapele, Ughelli and Utorogu be stepped up to augment any shortfalls as repair works have commenced on the pipeline.

The Escravos pipeline supplies gas to power plants, in addition to feeding the West Africa Gas Pipeline System.

It should be recalled that ELPS-C (downstream) of this pipeline was incinerated by a bush fire January 2 at Abakila, in Ondo State, which had since been rectified and brought back to service.

The earlier fire incident had affected gas supply to customers in Ondo, Ogun and Lagos State with subsequent shutdown of some power plants with a combined generating capacity of 1,143MW.

In a related incident, management of the Corporation appealed to motorists in Abuja, its environs and other parts of the Country not to engage in any panic buying of petroleum products.

According to a statement signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC assures motorists that the Corporation has robust stock of PMS, otherwise called petrol, which is sufficient to serve the nation for more than 30 days.

This plea comes on the heels of queues noticeable in some fuel stations, especially in Abuja.

Motorists are advised to report any marketer selling above N145 per litre of petrol or hoarding the products to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) which is statutorily empowered to deal with such issues.

DPR has offices located in all parts of the country.

Law enforcement agencies would mete out appropriate sanctions to operators of fuel stations who engage in hoarding or sell products above the recommended band.

Source:

M&P, Agency Report