The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the state-run oil company, the NNPC, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, says he’s been poring through a list of measures aimed at putting activities of pipeline vandals and oil thieves in check.
“Oil theft is a major issue for us”, he said, adding that “we lose on average of about 50,000 barrels of oil. We lose about $3-$4bn of revenue and that is just in terms of crude oil itself. When you get to pipeline, most of our pipelines are ruptured and attacked fairly frequently. Last year alone, between June 2014 and June 2015, we recorded between 3,400 and 4,000 attacks on the various pipelines in the country. The effect is a shut in of about 250,000 barrels a day and when you calculate that you have a net loss of over $7bn.”
Kachikwu also said: “We are launching an armada of approaches, which will include the incorporation of drones to check the movement of vessels within Nigeria’s territorial waters.
“We are looking at the current logistical nightmares of changing staffing at the loading bay of crude oil export terminals virtually every 90 days, we are trying to equip the navy sufficiently; though they are very well equipped in terms of skill set but not in terms of arsenal for patrols within the maritime area.”
He also noted, like he’s said in the past, that the best approach to combating theft is to make the host communities where these pipelines traverse, feel a part of it all.
“The best security for these pipelines lies with the communities. We are trying to create enough incentives for them to see these pipelines as their own.”
He vowed that the NNPC will stamp out oil theft in eight months.
The post To combat oil theft, the NNPC will use drones henceforth according to Kachikwu appeared first on Ekekeee.