Hints have emerged from the grassroots along the pipeline route on why Nigeria’s daily crude oil output has continued to surge toward the 2mbp 2025 ending target.
Investigations in the oil region reveal that this is due to reduction or elimination of breaking of pipelines which allows all the crude oil pumped out of the oil wells to travel safely to the terminal in Bonny in Rivers State for export.
There 125 communities along the Trans-Niger Pipeline. Their leaders including youth representatives, women leaders, monarch, elders, etc, met in Port Harcourt Wednesday, July 30, 2025, to review the operational methods of the Pipeline Infrastructure Nigeria Limited (PINL), the firm charged with protection of the pipeline in the eastern corridor.
Before now, breaches on the Shell-operated TNP got to the point that it was shut down due to hundreds of attacks per day. The shutdown led to zero deliver of products to Bonny and huge drop in oil export. The NLNG once reported access less than half of the gas it needed even as the Train-7 was under fast construction. This was the situation when the new president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, made changes in the oil industry and security agencies and read the riot act to them, demanding stop to oil attacks.
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More contracts were issued to Tantita, PINL, etc, in both the western and eastern corridors to protect the oil lines. The mandate is said to have been pushed up to include all oil facilities.
At the moment, the daily output has increased from 1.5mbpd last year to 1.75mbpd, heading to 2mbpd by end of 2025, according to government figures. This seems to boost hopes for the economy as stability seems to return to the oil industry.
Confirming the role of pipeline communities and the duties of PINL, the representatives of the 125 communities who addressed the press in Port Harcourt warned against succumbing to threats from marginal voices against the PINL or those working daily to protect the pipelines.
The address by Pipeline Host Ethnic Nationality Leaders (PHENL) comprising the ljaw, Ekpeye, Ikwerre, Eleme, Ogoni, Andoni, Bonny, Egbema, Ukwa, Oguta, among others within Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, and Abia states declared support with the operational methods of PINL that gave birth to the new stability in the oil region.
According to Bayelsa-born Famous Daunemigha who spoke for the communities, at the start of PINL’s operations, crude oil delivery via the TNP was at zero percent due to rampant oil theft and illegal refining (commonly called kpo fire). “With a mix of kinetic and non-kinetic strategies, and in collaboration with Government Security Agencies (GSAs), PINL tackled these issues head-on.
“Today, oil throughput on the TNP has risen to nearly 100%, with near-zero infractions a historic achievement that deserves national recognition.”
On the strategies they observed on the part of PINL, the community leaders mentioned aggressive youth engagement in all the 125 communities and job provision.
They stated that PINL has maintained close consultations with community leadership, including paramount rulers, chiefs, Community Development Committee (CDC) chairmen, youth, and women leaders. “These leaders are on monthly stipends, hence, they are playing critical roles in promoting community peace and provide adequate protection of the TNP. The positive scorecard comes as a result of ownership of the TNP by the host communities.”
With these strategies never seen before in the oil industry together with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes and conflict resolution/management skills, as well as curtailing of pollution and environmental degradation, a new lease of life is said to have returned to the oil communities.
The communities thus urged PINL not only to sustain their actions but rather to expand on its innovations, particularly the monthly stakeholder engagements and its inclusive community development policies.
They also called on the presidency and all relevant federal agencies to not only renew PINL’s mandate but expand its scope of operations, saying it is the only natural way to a recognize a job well done.
This call is a counter to some calls to stop the job handled by PINL by a group that was agitating for some other groups in the Delta section, bringing some ethnic colorations in the pipeline protection mandates.
Leaders of the 125 pipeline communities in the eastern corridor thus urged the FG to focus on the performance of the mandate as well as the high output so far recorded in reaching a decision.
