Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has said that the Corporation will leverage public private partnership to address the gap in pipeline infrastructure in the country.
Speaking while inaugurating a new board for one of its downstream subsidiaries- the Nigerian Pipeline Storage Company (NPSC), in Abuja, Baru was optimistic that the private sector could help the industry build more pipelines parallel to the corporation’s existing ones.
“Your work also is to look at refurbishing these pipelines and storage along a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement by getting willing private companies to invest in these pipelines. NNPC Management is very much disposed to supporting your efforts in this regard,” he said. Baru, who insisted that such partnership would enhance the company’s profitability, urged the company to double its pipeline network in the next 10 years, stressing that such a target was “absolutely necessary.”
According to him, pipelines are the arteries of the nation’s oil and gas industry, saying that part of the reform process embarked upon by the corporation was to birth an NPSC with clear focus that regards pipeline storage and distribution as real business. “I have a passion for this company and I believe this firm will be a leader in that segment of our operations. That is why we focused our energy on refurbishing, repairing and re-streaming of our storage facilities and pipelines over the last few months,” Baru noted.
He charged them to also integrate, through their pipelines resources, the various butanisation depots which are used as reception points for Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).“We have a lot of LPG that is being exported. This could be utilized domestically in line with our vision of providing alternative energy sources for domestic and industrial use nationwide,” he stressed.
Baru tasked the NPSC management to engage the various host state governments towards the restoration of the Products Right of Way (PRoW) to ensure the safety of the citizens and products. He added that most of the state governments were ever-willing to support the corporation in preventing infringements on its PRoW. He expressed NNPC Management’s readiness to engage security agencies against any act of economic sabotage towards the pipelines.