NNPC to face lawsuit over illegal oil pipelines
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) says it is initiating a lawsuit against the federal government over the illegal crude pipelines discovered by the Nigerian National Petroleum Limited (NNPC Ltd) in the creeks of the Niger Delta recently.
The rights group, in a tweet, said the lawsuit aims at compelling the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration “to name those responsible for the plundering of the country’s oil wealth, bring them to justice, and recover the proceeds of crime.”
The Nigerian government has complained of dwindling crude oil revenue, due to massive theft and attendant low production output.
In what appears the clearest evidence of the oil heist, the state-oil company recently discovered a four-kilometer-long pipeline illegally connected to Shell’s Forcados export terminal. The connection, the NNPC said, leads into the sea.
Mele Kyari, NNPC Ltd GMD, said that an estimated 600,000 barrels per day, worth about $55 million daily at current pricing, is stolen daily.
