The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has expressed the Corporation’s commitment to tackling oil theft

The Corporation, he stated, may settle for the option of community-based policing to protect the vast artery of oil and gas pipeline network across Nigeria.

Kachikwu made the decision known at a meeting with the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Perry John Calderwood held at the NNPC Towers in Abuja on Friday,

Kachikwu pledged to give a lot of attention to the perennial menace of pipeline vandalism and oil theft.

“I intend to give a lot of energy to the issue of oil theft and pipeline vandalism. We must keep the losses from oil theft to the lowest figure possible. I don’t believe in the arm -for-arm approach.

“We must engage the host communities and inculcate in them the need to see the assets in their domain as their own.”

In a statement issued after the meeting by the spokesman for the Corporation, Ohi Aligbe, the NNPC boss said that in the months ahead, the Corporation would initiate discussions with community leaders and interest groups with a view to fashioning a workable community oriented pipeline protection format, with less emphasis on the use of brute force to secure the lines.

On the state of the refineries, Dr. Kachikwu solicited support from Canadian companies and service providers, stating that Nigeria could make do with Canada’s vast experience in refining and expertise in oil and gas operations.

In his response, Ambassador Calderwood said the Canadian government and business entities were willing to work with the NNPC in growing the Nigeria oil and gas industry to enviable heights. (Channels TV)

•Photo shows Kachikwu