The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation lost a total of N190bn to pipeline vandals between 2011 and 2012, the Petroleum Products Marketing Company Limited has said.

Spokesman for PPMC, Mr. Nasir Imodagbe, disclosed this in a telephone interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Wednesday.

Details of the loss showed that while revenues lost to crude oil theft decreased substantially within the period, revenues lost to theft of refined products, however, increased substantially.

In 2011, pipeline vandalism for the theft of crude resulted in the loss of N90bn, while that for the theft of refined products resulted in the loss of N20bn in the same year.

In the following year, theft of crude oil resulted in the loss of N40bn, while vandalism for the theft of refined petroleum products also led to the loss of N40bn.

Thus, within a period of two years, crude oil theft from pipeline vandalism declined by 55.55 per cent, while pipeline vandalism for the purpose of stealing refined products increased by 100 per cent.

Imodagbe attributed the decline in crude oil theft to increase in security operations in the Niger Delta region.

"Crude oil theft happens mainly in the Niger Delta. This reduced because of increased security operations in the region. However, product theft has been on the increase especially in the South West," he said.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, had in December 2012 lamented the increasing activities of pipeline vandals.

He said then that in less than five months, the NNPC pipelines had been broken at 774 places.

According to him, less than one week after the vital System 2B pipeline was restored through extensive repair work on the ruptured Arepo point in Ogun State, the corporation was compelled to shut the line because of an attack at a point in Ije-Ododo, Lagos State.

Yakubu lamented the unending incidents of pipeline hacking and product theft, which had posed great danger to the efficient distribution and supply of petroleum products in some parts of the country.

If left unchecked, he said the nefarious activities of pipeline marauders could cripple the smooth operation of the downstream sector of the industry.

He had said, "We had over 774 break points since August 2012 from Atlas Cove to the Ilorin depot. Between Atlas Cove and Mosimi depot, we recorded 181 break points; from Mosimi to Ibadan, we had 421 ruptured points; and from Mosimi to Ore, we recorded 50 vandalised points. Also between Ibadan and Ilorin, we had a total of 122 break points.

"These are critical national assets and we must begin to see them in that light. PIB or no PIB, privatisation or no privatisation, no industry can survive under this kind of arrangement.

"We have a fallback strategy, which we have already activated to ensure uninterrupted supply of products. Don't forget that we had the worst time when the line was shut completely in August after the Arepo incident, but we have restored the line and it started working and Nigerians felt the impact, only for the vandals to strike again."

NNPC had reported in 2010 that it lost N174bn to pipeline vandalism in 10 years. The loss of N190bn in the following two years goes to show the increasing menace of pipeline vandalism.