Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), the firm responsible for securing the Trans Niger Pipeline (TNP), has began moves to avert further explosions of the pipeline, which supplies crude oil to the Bonny oil terminal in Rivers State.
To this end, the firm has scheduled its stakeholders engagement with all communities and relevant stakeholders on the TNP corridor.
The company’s 215 host communities and stakeholders are drawn from Abia, Bayelsa, Imo and Rivers States.
The engagement is a follow-up to earlier similar engagements and sensitisations with the host communities, aimed at creating a sense of ownership in the communities and stakeholders of the critical national asset.
Addressing journalists in Port Harcourt, the PINL’s community relations consultant, Dr Akpos Meze, said traditional rulers, youth and women leaders from the communities on the TNP corridor were expected to be part of the meeting.
Meze noted that top political actors from the four states, especially Rivers State, where the political crisis rocking the state has been blamed to be fueling the cases of pipeline vandalism, were expected to be in attendance.
He emphasised that PINL was not partisan in the matter, insisting that the essence of the latest meeting with the various interest groups was to drive a peace process and ultimately secure the pipeline to ensure greater output to boost the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The consultant expressed optimism that the meeting fixed for Monday, March 31, and Tuesday, April 1 in Port Harcourt and Yenagoa, respectively, would help end further infractions on the TNP.
Meze said; “There is that impression that the recent blast on the Trans Niger Pipeline under our management could have been avoided, so what we intend doing as the stakeholders meeting of all the community leaders, government representatives and all actors is take steps to forestall further infractions.
“The meeting is to ensure that everybody is on the same page and carry same vision for more oil output and increase the Gross Domestic Product of the country.”
He used the opportunity to clear the air on the recent blast on the TNP pipeline in Bodo, Gokana LGA of Rivers State, describing it as a clear case of sabotage.
Meze explained that for a long time before the recent incident, the company had maintained zero infractions on the pipeline and want to immediately return to the status.
The consultant, however, confirmed that the pipeline has since returned to full operation, saying; “The Trans Niger Pipeline has been fixed and it’s currently working at 100% output.
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