TheCable

Ibe Kachikwu, minister of petroleum resources, says the effects of vandalism pf pipelines in the Niger Delta will be with the country for 15 to 20 years.

Speaking at the Uyo town hall meeting organised by the federal ministry of information and culture, the minister also said Nigeria could not totally end pipeline vandalism without creating opportunities for militants within the oil sector.

He promised to ensure the establishment of an oil depot in Akwa Ibom.

“More than just the depot, I think Akwa-Ibom deserves more. I’m talking with those who are producing oil here to begin to look at the possibility of modular refineries,” he said.

“Modular refineries are going to be the answer to our problems in the future. We talk about the militants and their agitations, the reality is that until we begin to put things in place that would have these so called ‘militants’ find opportunities in the sector, the destruction is going to continue.”

He added that any solution to these problems must find long lasting ways of putting opportunities on the tables of any citizen of a state that produces oil.

“Floating filling stations, modular refineries, gas bleeding systems; all of these are what we are targeting for,” he said.

“We are developing a document basically dealing with our relationship for oil producing states, so we can find a direct link between what we do and the oil that we produce. Then the restiveness will go.

“I have appealed to those who are breaking oil pipelines for now, the Niger Delta Avengers and everybody else, and as you know we are engaging in negotiations for us to find peace this week and be able to enter truce relationship that stops all the destruction.

“When we destroy pipelines, we destroy our environment. Even when we make up the pipeline, it takes an average of 15 to 20 years to get those infrastructures and those climatic effects on the environment to go away.”

There have been series of oil installation bombings of late by the Niger Delta Avengers, with whom the federal government is currently trying to initiate peace talks.