Expdonaloaded News; Vandalism: KRPC wants oil pipelines tagged ‘military zone’

The Managing Director, Ka­duna Refining and Petro­chemical Company Limited (KRPC), Engineer Saidu Aliyu Mohammed has advocated the tagging of the company’s pipelines as military zone in order to prevent incessant activities of vandals.Speaking yesterday through the Ex­ecutive Director, Services, KRPC, Al­haji Idi Mukhtar at a 4 – day workshop organised for energy correspondents in Kano, Engineer Mohammed said this has become necessary because vandal­ism is a serious threat to KRPC’s per­formance.


He also lamented that the supply of crude oil to the KRPC is grossly in­adequate, adding that it is still a ma­jor challenge to the sustenance of the plant operation and needed to be tack­led holistically.
According to him “The incessant vandalism on Warri-Kaduna pipe­line is one of the greatest threats to KRPC’s performance. This line needs to be highly secured to guarantee con­tinuous supply of crude oil to KRPC. We advocate for the pipeline to be re­garded as ‘military zone’ in view of its strategic importance.
“Replacement of the weak segments of the pipeline is ongoing. The repair is expected to be completed on August 27, 2015, and thereafter, crude oil sup­ply to KRPC would resume.
“While, the plants were shutdown due to lack of crude oil, the opportuni­ty was exploited to intensify the plant rehabilitation activities.
“The current plant rehabilitation is being done in phases. Phase 1 was completed in December, 2014 and phase 2 was concluded in July, 2015. We are hoping to commence phase 3 from September 2015.
“It is pertinent to mention that these achievements and indeed the smooth running of KRPC could not have been realised without the host communi­ties’ cooperation. We are in harmony with our host communities; we thank them and solicit for their continued support”.