Nigeria has incurred over Naira 174.57 billion ($1.2 billion) in product losses and money expended on repairs of the pipelines in the last 10 years, NNPC said in a statement.

The incessant attacks on the Shell-operated Trans Forcados Pipeline since May 2009, made it impossible to evacuate crude oil and condensate from some Shell operated facilities, NNPC said.

Currently, over 300,000 b/d of oil and 140,000 Mcf/d of gas is deferred and about 55 vandalized points so far repaired at a cost of Naira 11 billion, NNPC group managing director Mohammed Barkindo was quoted saying.

"The advent of illegal bunkering, pipeline vandalism and product theft has massively impacted on the capacity of Nigeria's massive oil and gas assets to function optimally," Barkindo said.

According to statistics released by the NNPC, a total 16,083 pipeline breaks were recorded within the period with arson attacks responsible for 97.5% of the damage to the facilities.

The NNPC said it spent over $42.9 million to repair the strategic Escravos-to-Warri crude oil pipeline which supplies crude to the Warri and Kaduna refineries.

--Staff, newsdesk@platts.com