House of Representatives Launches Probe into Nigeria’s Escalating Pipeline Vandalism Crisis
The House of Representatives has set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the rising cases of pipeline vandalism across the country, a menace that has led to staggering financial losses and environmental devastation.
The resolution was passed on Thursday during a plenary session, following a motion co-sponsored by Muhammed Shehu, a lawmaker from Kano, alongside 14 other legislators.
Nigeria has long struggled with pipeline sabotage, losing billions of naira to oil theft and environmental damage. In November 2023, Ogbonnaya Orji, Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), described the situation as a national emergency, revealing that the country recorded 7,143 cases of pipeline vandalism between 2017 and 2021.
During the debate, Shehu emphasized that from 2018 to 2023, over 7,000 incidents of pipeline vandalism resulted in crude oil losses worth an estimated $12.74 million. He pointed to a significant incident in October 2024, when sabotage slashed crude oil supply to Shell’s Forcados terminal by 50 percent, causing loading delays and the looming threat of force majeure declarations.
In January 2025, an oil spill from a facility owned by a Shell subsidiary wreaked havoc on the Niger Delta’s ecosystem, exacerbating pollution and economic hardship for local communities. A month later, Shell reported another oil spill near Port Harcourt, triggered by an overflow during pipeline flushing operations.
“The Niger Delta region has suffered from decades of oil spills, causing severe health hazards, destruction of farmlands, and contamination of water sources, thereby worsening poverty among local communities,” Shehu stated.
Despite ongoing interventions, oil theft remains rampant. Shehu noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) has ramped up efforts to curb crude oil theft, uncovering 19 illegal pipeline connections and dismantling 58 illegal refineries in just one week in January 2025.
Lawmakers warned that unchecked pipeline vandalism threatens Nigeria’s energy security and undermines efforts to achieve sustainable economic growth. The motion to investigate the crisis was adopted by a voice vote, led by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.
