– As Oil Production Increases
- Safiu Kehinde
The Group CEO of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has told the military to protect the company’s critical assets amid fear of crude oil theft as oil production increases.
This was made known in a statement issued by NNPC’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, following courtesy visit to the company’s Abuja Office by senior military officers earlier today.
According to the statement, Kyari appealed for increased security engagement and protection of company’s critical facilities by the Armed Forces as he received the senior military officers led by Chief of Defense Staff, Christopher Musa.
“I personally call for enhanced and sustained security engagement. This is because we have reached a new peak in production that we haven’t seen in the last three years.
“This is clearly related to the sustained efforts by the armed forces and other security agencies to protect our critical assets, particularly the pipeline infrastructure in specified areas where we are working closely with these agencies.
“We are already seeing the results transforming into increased production,” Kyari stated.
While commending the military on their efforts in securing the Niger Delta region, Kyari called on the military to sustain the war against crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism, stressing the current onslaught against the menace has yielded improved growth in the nation’s crude oil production.
On his part, the Chief of Defense Staff, Christopher Musa said the visit was intended to introduce the Monitoring Team to the NNPC Ltd, which will be responsible for interfacing with the Company and other stakeholders in the oil-producing regions to secure the nation’s critical hydrocarbon infrastructure.
He, however, for collaboration between intelligence agencies, private security, state governments and host communities for enhanced performance.
“Working in silos won’t give us the best results. I want to assure you that we will collaborate with the necessary stakeholders to achieve our set targets as mandated by Mr. President.” he said.