Nigeria needs $2 bil to repair bombed oil pipelines: minister

Platts

23 November 2011

Nigeria needs $2 bil to repair bombed oil pipelines: minister

The repairs of bombed pipelines supplying Nigeria's refineries with crude oil and distributing petroleum products will cost $2 billion, the state media reported Wednesday quoting the country's oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke as telling the Senate panel probing the Naira 1.3 trillion ($8.1 billion) subsidies on imported fuel for 2011.

Nigeria's hundreds of kilometers of oil pipelines are targets of sabotage attacks by suspected thieves who steal crude for feedstock for their numerous illegal refineries in the region or steal oil products to sell in black market.

State oil firm, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., has often attributed vandalism of pipelines to the frequent forced closures of its Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries, and the consequent large import of petroleum products.