Shell Deploys Cameras To Check Oil Thieves, Vandals.

Shell Deploys Cameras To Check Oil Thieves, Vandals.

Oil super major, Royal Dutch Shell, has deployed state-of-the-art high definition (HD) cameras against oil thieves and pipeline vandals who reportedly stole 4.015 million barrels from its Nigeria's multi billion dollars assets in 2018.

The cameras, Shell announced through its subsidiary in Nigeria, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), would also help in quick detection of and response to crude oil spills from its facilities in addition to tracking vandalism of SPDC joint venture assets.

SPDCs General Manager, Igo Weli, who declared this at a media workshop for journalists in Warri, Delta State, noted that the cameras are attached to specialised helicopters which carry out daily over flight over our facilities.

This measure, he said, had improved the surveillance of our Joint Venture assets.

In addition, Weli said, SPDC had implemented anti-theft protection mechanisms on key infrastructure, such as wellheads and manifolds to stem constant attacks from vandals and thereby prevent and minimise sabotage-related spills.

According to him, the daily loss of over 11,000 barrels of oil per day in 2018 and the threat to the integrity of the joint venture assets necessitated the multi-pronged approach to protecting what he called critical national assets.

He said: We collaborate with community leaders, traditional rulers, civil societies and state governments in the Niger Delta to implement several initiatives and partnerships to raise awareness on the negative impact of crude oil theft and illegal oil refining. Such public enlightenment programmes on the negative impacts to people and the environment help to build greater trust in spill response and clean-up processes.

Weli noted that SPDC would sustain its air and ground surveillance to complement the efforts of government security forces in checking crude theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining.

But for the efforts of Operation Delta Safe in protecting critical oil and gas assets, the situation would have gone beyond control, Weli said, calling on the Operation Delta Safe, a special oil and gas asset protection force, and other government security forces to intensify their activities around oil and gas facilities.

Also speaking at the workshop, SPDCs General Manager, Safety and Environment, Chidube Nnene-Anochie, noted that the majority of spill incidents on SPDC pipelines were as a result of sabotage.

We are burdened by the continuous increase in cases of sabotage and theft. Oil spills due to theft and sabotage of facilities, as well as illegal refining, cause the most environmental damage from oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta, he said.

According to Nnene-Anochie, SPDC removed more than 1,160 illegal theft points from its pipelines between 2012 and end of 2018, adding that the attendant spills from the theft points were sometimes made worse by challenges of access to the incident sites to investigate and stop leaks.