Nigeria hires US firm to secure oil installations
June 5, 2006, 17 hours, 22 minutes and 47 seconds ago.
By ANDnetwork .com
Nigeria's federal government is making arrangements to employ the services of an American technology giant to install devices that will secure oil installations.
By Ejiofor Alike
The devices will monitor, detect and prevent the frequent vandalisation of oil pipelines and the destruction of oil installations across the country. And oil companies are willing to pay for the modern security system in the form of security tax.
This latest technology from advanced researches by the United States army and navy in collaboration with Philips Petroleum, BP Oil and other American oil companies has already been installed in the United States of America and Mexico to protect oil facilities.
Sources close to the company said that officials of the American company had arrived Nigeria to fine tune the proposals to be submitted to government.
According to the sources, the American company, whose identity could not be disclosed for security reasons, would employ the integrated smart sensors and pipeline management systems which are the first and only one of its kinds in the world.
The technology will control, manage, protect and observe oil and gas production processes, as well as collect information every second for an automatic identification of problem areas for quick action.
According to sources, the technology is also capable of leak detection, threat recognition, intruder detection and prevention, pipeline balance reporting, production reporting and automatic response procedures, adding that it simply combines operations control monitoring with asset monitoring and protection.
The equipment are to be installed in strategic places to enable mobile operators and security agents in vehicles and offices to monitor, detect and recognise events, activities and movement of persons and vehicles within a distance of one kilometre on both sides of an oil installation with the aid of full motion video.
The basic ingredients required for the security of oil wells, production facilities and pipelines are the ability to promptly identify and recognise threats, disruption of service (leaks and breakages) and mount defence against the destruction or theft of the installation, pointing out that the technology is well-structured to meet these challenges.
Oil companies pledge support
On the cost of the project, the company sources said the company was yet to conclude the pilot survey to determine the actual cost of the project, but they said the infra-red cameras which would be installed at every 1km to 5km to cover the network of the 5 000km NNPC pipelines comprising 4 315km of multi-product and 685km of crude oil pipelines, cost between US$3 000 and US$20 000 each depending on the quality and range.
BusinessDay gathered that Chevron, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Limited and other oil companies operating in Nigeria had pledged their support for the programme. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) have called for the project proposal. The sources hinted that in line with governments policy on local content, the project when completed would be managed by one of Nigeria s leading indigenous oil service company and communication giant.
Commenting on the proposed project, sources at the indigenous company who spoke to BusinessDay on condition of anonymity bemoaned the incessant vandalisation of oil facilities in Nigeria and described the technology as the only panacea to this problem.
Analysts say that the technology will be a landmark development in Nigeria s oil and gas industry as it will curtail the incessant vandalisation of oil pipelines and destruction of oil installations which have led to the loss of several lives and billions of dollars of oil revenue.
The attacks on oil installations, vandalisation of pipelines and kidnapping of oil workers have cut crude oil production by about 550 000 barrels a day, representing more than 20% of the country’s daily production. At an average price of US$73.32 per barrel, the 550 000 barrels a day production disruption translates to a financial loss of US$40 million a day or US$1.2 billion a month.
The loss has also prevented Shell from taking its own share of about 100 000 barrels a day to the international market while the destruction of gas pipelines has reduced the country’s power supply by 850 megawatts. More than 3 000 Nigerians have also lost their lives in pipeline explosions occasioned by the activities of vandals and saboteurs.
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