The Group Managing Director (GMD), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Mele Kyari, has commended the country’s military for providing secure environment for the corporation to carry out its functions.

A statement by Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, Acting Director of Defence Information in Abuja, said that Kyari gave the commendation when he visited the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Gabriel Olonisakin, on Tuesday.

Kyari said that the military had succeeded in curtailing the activities of pipeline vandals and saboteurs of the nation’s key national economic infrastructure.

He added that the activities of the military in the nation’s oil sector had created the much-needed safe environment for NNPC to conduct petroleum operations for the benefit of all Nigerians.

In his remarks, Olonisakin congratulated Kyari on his appointment as the helmsman of the nation’s petroleum corporation.

He assured the GMD of the readiness of the armed forces to collaborate with the NNPC in safeguarding the country’s infrastructure in the oil and gas sector.

Olonisakin further assured that the military would sustain its ‘Operation Awatse’, which was launched to tackle the menace of pipeline vandalism in the South-West zone, amongst other criminal activities.

He also added that the military would intensify its ongoing ‘Operation Delta Safe’ in the South-South zone. (NAN)