NNPC to Deploy Drones to Monitor Movement of oil Vessels

Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Ibe Kachikwu in a presentation at the special conference on Security in the Gulf of Guinea organized by the Gusau Institute, stated that the Corporation is working on a range of far reaching options designed to end crude and petroleum products theft within the next eight months.


The press statement of the corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ohi Alegbe quoted the helmsman as saying:

“We are launching an armada of approaches which will include incorporation of drones to check movements of vessels within our 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.”

“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 said

“Most of our product pipelines are ruptured and attacked frequently. For instance between June 2014 and June 2015, we recorded about 3, 500 to 4,000 attempts at the various products pipelines across the country. In addition to that, the pipelines that are supposed to convey crude to the refineries are perpetually hacked, ’’ he added.

Dr. Kachikwu noted that the resort to the use of marine vessels to convey crude to the refineries is coming at heavy cost.

“What this means is that no matter what we do with the refineries today, unless that is solved, we really are going nowhere, we cannot operate the refineries.”