Ijegun disaster, NNPC and lack of safety standards

THE oil pipeline fire disaster that devastated parts of Ijegun in Lagos State last week once again shows the level of negligence and lack of application of safety standards by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the handling and operation of the oil industry in the country. The oil industry here is operated in the most sub-standard manner. The result is the frequent disasters we have recorded in recent times.

Since October 1998 when a pipeline fire disaster killed over 1000 people in Jesse, Delta State, the country has recorded 10 pipeline disasters out of which, six occurred in Lagos State alone while Abia and Delta states recorded two each. In all, nearly 2000 thousands people perished, thousands suffered various degrees of burn while many are permanently incapacitated. The environmental impact of these disasters on biodiversity cannot be estimated.

Worldwide, the oil industry is operated on approved international standards. There are strict rules and regulations guiding health, safety and environment (HSE) that should be adhered. The procedures guiding oil exploration, exploitation, processing, distribution and marketing are strictly regulated. This is because oil is a hazardous product and poses danger at every stage of its handling and operation. Disastrous accidents are rife if it is not properly handled. There is no separate standard that is meant for Nigeria alone. The same standards applied in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, USA or any other oil producing country is what should apply in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, this is not the case. The NNPC and its joint-venture partners and contractors have unwittingly devised a Nigerian standard of handling and operating the oil industry. Weak laws and corruption have made it difficult to enforce the approved international standards. As a result, the various activities that involve the handling of oil are apparently carried out without recourse to safety. The frequent oil pipeline disasters and oil tanker accidents on our highways underscore this fact. The NNPC and its joint-venture partners cannot claim to be ignorant of what the standards require them to do just as it is done elsewhere. Certainly, they are aware but because this is Nigeria, where anything goes, a different standard is applied. This carelessness is costing the country so much in human and material loss.

When I first heard that an earth mover working on a road construction site caused the Ijegun pipeline fire disaster, the questions that ran through my mind were: Are there no maps showing the network of NNPC pipelines in the country? Does the NNPC not have a map showing the network of its pipelines and the facilities they link? If there are maps, are they not made available to state governments and their agencies for their information in carrying out their normal functions of governance? Is there no coordination between government agencies and the NNPC on matters related to road construction and urban expansion for purposes of safeguarding the pipelines?

If the NNPC has no maps of its pipeline distribution network, the question is why not? How does the Corporation monitor the pipelines? How does it educate the public about the existence of the pipelines around them? Who is to blame? Is it the NNPC or someone who by accident or design tampers with the pipelines? Are oil pipelines vandalised in other countries the way it is done in Nigeria? If not, why? Why are our oil pipelines always prone to erosion, vandalism and accidental damage? Furthermore, to what extent is an ordinary "mark" or "sign", which millions of people have no idea what it means enough to restrict encroachment on the pipelines?

The Ijegun pipeline is reportedly part of a network of pipelines running from Atlas Cove Jetty in Lagos through FESTAC town, Ijegun, Ikotun to Ogun State. The disaster is an eye-opener to the danger many residents are exposed. It shows that the issue at stake is more grave and worrisome than what we have witnessed. What should worry the government is that along the Ijegun and the other oil pipelines that crisscross the country, millions of people are ignorantly sitting atop time bomb doing business. Buildings, shops and even public schools have sprung up along what the NNPC routinely calls its "pipeline right-of-way".

The question is how are the people made to know and recognise the "pipeline right-of-way? If only the NNPC top officials who are seated comfortably in their cozy offices know the "pipeline right-of-way", how would that knowledge or information be transferred to the members of the public? On a major highway, for instance, the spot where pedestrians have right-of-way is usually marked by a zebra crossing. Both the pedestrians and motorists have knowledge of this and respect it. How many Nigerians know how to recognise the NNPC right-of-way where dangerous pipelines have been laid? And most importantly, where was the NNPC when people encroached on its "pipeline right-of-way"? Do you abandon something as critical as oil pipelines unattended and still expect them to be intact? If men didn't tamper with them, what about the impact of natural forces such as erosion?

Oil pipelines are like high-tension electric cables. As a matter of fact, they are more dangerous. A collapsed electric cable accident would not likely cause as much damage as a burst pipeline fire would and yet development is not allowed under high-tension electric cables. For one thing, the cables are visible and people know that they pose danger. This contrasts with the oil pipelines, which in many places are not visible and there is nothing to show that they exist. Besides, there is no visible restriction by any authority against encroaching on them.

Without any accurate figures, reports say as much as 100 innocent people perished in the Ijegun inferno; hundreds were injured and properties worth millions of naira were destroyed. Both residential and business houses and vehicles were burnt. Most pathetic is the death of school children that were in their classes when the fire started. The raging fire overwhelmed them and many were consumed in the stampede. The students of Ijegun Comprehensive High School and another primary school suffered this fate.

It is clear from the fact of the location of the schools that the NNPC was negligent in enforcing the right-of-way of its pipelines. If the Corporation had resisted the location of the schools, it is hard to believe that the Lagos State Government would have approved the sitting of the institutions atop the pipelines. I believe that the NNPC in conformity with the existing international rules and regulation has units and departments responsible for monitoring the pipelines but who chose to be negligent. It is only after an accident had occurred that the Corporation would awake from slumber to start claiming rights.

Given the level of despoliation in the country, it is hard to know how many schools; residential houses, shops and other activities are currently carried out atop NNPC pipelines. How many millions of people are exposed to avoidable danger related to pipeline explosions?

To start with, the NNPC pipelines were not laid according to the approved international standards. They are easily vandalized because they are near the surface and not protected by concrete. The NNPC Group Managing Director, Abubarkar Lawal Yar'Adua rightly acknowledged this at Ijegun when he said "the drawing and laying of the NNPC right-of-way for petroleum products' pipelines was below international standards". He went further to say, "I don't know whether the drawing of the NNPC right-of-way for the burying of pipelines was good enough". He added that the thinking of government officials when the pipes were laid was that people would not intrude into the right-of-way. This is na?ve and smacks of lack of professionalism in the operation of the country's oil industry.

Now that the harsh economic situations in the country coupled with lawlessness have forced people to encroach on the pipelines, what is the NNPC going to do? We have potential disaster looming all over the country wherever these pipelines have passed. If the caterpillar did not burst the Ijegun pipeline, the school and the residents would still be there while hazardous oil is flowing under their feet without their knowledge. What about the other communities where nothing has burst the pipeline and they are still there?

On the basis of the foregoing, the NNPC should carry out a complete overhaul of its pipeline system throughout the country. I have said this in my previous comments in this column. The network of pipelines should be mapped and made available to all stakeholders. There should be public education on how to recognize where pipelines are laid. The states should control development along NNPC pipelines right-of-way. People who are currently settling on NNPC right-of-way should be appropriately relocated. Finally, people who have suffered death, pain and injury or loss of property should be compensated by the NNPC for being careless and not adhering to international laid down standards in the oil industry.