Oil Theft: Nigeria to deploy drones
Posted by admin | 9 years ago | 2,506 times
As part of efforts geared towards curbing oil theft on the nations waterways, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has said it may deploy drones to curb the rampant menace.
In a statement, by the NNPC Managing Director, Ibe Kachikwu, the corporation is to launch "armada of approaches" aimed at ending theft within eight months. Some of the measures include looking at arming the navy with equipment to help them with their patrols and working with law enforcement agencies to increase its presence in the area to protect pipelines, he said.
Kachikwu said that between June 2014 and June 2015, the corporation recorded between 3, 500 to 4,000 theft attempts at the various products pipelines across the country.
"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," Kachikwu said.
Millions of dollars in oil is stolen daily in Nigeria and the government estimates around 250,000 barrels of oil are lost to oil thieves per day.
Oil companies blame oil spills on gangs who break into pipelines to steal crude. Earlier this year Shell, the largest oil company operating in Nigeria, agreed to pay $83.5 million to a fishing community in the Niger Delta, who argued the company isn't doing enough to maintain and protect its pipelines from being sabotaged by oil thieves.
While income from agriculture and other industries has increased, Nigeria depends on oil for about 80 percent of its revenue and 95 percent of foreign reserves
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