The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has finalized plans to relinquish 5,000 km pipeline network, 21 petrol storage depots and nine Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) depots to private investors to upgrade, operate and secure under a Joint Venture model.

NNPC has invited interested firms to bid for the assets which has been divided into seven segments for easy operation.

Some of these assets include the Single Mooring Point (SMP); New Atlas Cove Jetty (NACJ); Atlas Cove and pump station; Satellite (Ejigbo) depot; Apapa jetty; and Atlas-Mosimi pipeline which are in segment 1.

The Apapa LPG plant in segment 1A, the Import Berth Platform (IBP); IBP-Escravos pipeline; Escravos terminal, Escravos-Warri crude oil line; Warri-Kaduna crude oil line and pump station; Warri pump station; Warri-Suleja pipeline; Warri-Benin pipeline; Benin depot; Benin-Ore pipeline and Ore depot in segment 2, Mosimi depot and pump station; Mosimi-Ibadan; Mosimi-Ore and Ibadan-Ilorin pipelines; Ibadan and Ilorin depot and pump station in 3 and Ibadan LPG plant in 3A are also included.

The Ilorin LPG plant in 3A, Kaduna and Zaria pump stations; Kaduna-Kano; Zaria-Gusau; Kaduna-Jos; Kaduna Suleja and Suleja-Minna pipelines as well as, Kano; Gusau; Suleja and Minna depots in segment 4, as well as Enugu, Markurdi, Yola, Port Harcourt and Aba depots amongst others.

The interested companies are expected to secure the country’s pipelines against third party breaches, upgrade and maintenance of pipelines, depots and storage facilities regularly as well as the safe transportation and reception of contracted volumes of products by users.

The investors, would also be asked to install advanced pipeline protection technology to discover and stop leakages, This Day reports.

Anita Fatunji