Wireless leak detection and the end of pipeline bunkering in Nigeria

The Nigerian economy is largely dependent on trading crude oil in the international market. Oil and gas exports account for more than 98% of export earnings and about 83% of federal government revenue.

It also provides 95% of foreign exchange earnings. To put it succinctly, the amount of development in the Nigerian socio economy is largely dependent on the degree to which the domestic oil industry is developed and indeed improved.

This is just from sheer numbers and statistics. For such a parochial economy dependent on just one export product, you would expect the government to perhaps be more serious in harnessing its sole surviving medium. It is almost like torturing the hen that lays the golden eggs when your whole life depends on the eggs it lays; it would perhaps be wiser if that Hen is nurtured properly to enable it lay more and better eggs.

As the most populated Black nation on earth- Nigeria prepares for a polarizing election, perhaps her greatest threat is not the socio-political threat posed by issues like armed insurgencies or political sabotage, but from the absolute decay of her most primal source of life- Crude oil revenue, for it is upon this premise that all economic policies, planning and fiscal existence depends.

It is safe to say that the acute vulnerability of the domestic economy and GDP to global market shocks is primarily because of the lack of investment, maintenance and diligence with regards to the Nigerian oil industry. At this point not only should the Kaduna and Port-Harcourt refineries be in tiptop shape, but they should have been adequately expanded. The nation should at least have close to a dozen refineries and be the primary supplier of petroleum products in Africa.

But it is a shame that with all the intellectuals and educated individuals that have managed Nigerian oil and gas in the past, the nation still finds it difficult to manage two small refineries let alone build more. Nigeria despite earning huge revenue from crude Oil exports must expend a significant portion of these earnings to importing refined petroleum products from the same countries it exports her crude to. To call this arrangement backward would be a huge compliment.

But one must ask what is at the root of this bedevilment suffered by Nigeria’s oil and gas over the years? What is at the very core of the problem of which if that one issue is addressed things would naturally and almost immediately fall into place? Of course corruption immediately springs to mind but that even doesn’t suit the thoroughness of our inquest; corruption in this case would be too vague a term. Really, why are Nigeria’s refineries always functioning at a skeletal scale?

Well, upon close analysis we find that the refineries just like any system are linked through a network and in this case pipelines most of which deliver critical products without which the refinery would halt service. We find that these pipelines not only ensure the serviceability and functionality of these refineries but are the backbone of storage, distribution and the entire downstream sector of a normal functioning industry. In fact the country’s electricity supply depends on the safety of these pipe networks.

According to Nigeria’s minister of power Professor Chinedu Nebo, “Nigeria records the highest number of vandalized oil pipelines in the world, making it harder to achieve sustainable power supply. “Online news media reports that, Nigeria loses about 150 thousand barrels of crude oil per day to pipeline vandalism, which at the average price of $43 per barrel at the time amounted to the tune of about $6.5 million a day. At 6 million dollars a day loss, this would add up to $42 million dollars a week and $2.18 billion dollars a year in lost oil revenue!

Mind you this is at a low price per barrel of just $43. Imagine how much the country loses when the oil prices improve. And all this loss is attributable to vandalization and criminal breach in a highly technological age? A wireless age? Wonderful. For a country as technologically savvy as Nigeria, the issue of malicious pipeline leakage or “bunkering” should have ceased to come up for discussion a long time ago. We live today in a wireless world full of sensors and highly sensitive surveillance devices.

The same way distance and time is no more an excuse in the exchange of mail with the advent of email, location and distance is no more an excuse in allowing pipeline bunkering to continue to exist. Technologies like Fiber Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) are intelligent solutions that can detect and classify third party interference.

These devices actually prevent incidents before they occur and are equipped with wireless technology and GPS to pinpoint the exact point of interference.

The fiber-optic cables act as highly sensitive microphones and can detect even a man walking on the surface of the ground. They can be used for existing as well as new piping networks; coupled with a system of cameras and sensors Nigeria can make her pipeline systems absolutely theft-proof. Considering the degree of dependence of the entire oil industry on connecting pipelines; from upstream to downstream, it is imperative that the government make this technology a priority for the sake of the entire economy.

Excuses like “oh well it s so expensive” can no longer hold water seeing that the country is already losing over $2 billion dollars yearly in pipeline vandalism and theft related activities. This technology would definitively not cost over a billion dollars but would create huge economic dividends for years to come, yielding billions of dollars in profits. Bear in mind that in the process of cleaning up this dirty business of bunkering, scavenger industries that have benefited from this anomaly for umpteenth years would have to give way.

The improvement in electric supply created by the protection of these pipelines would affect the power generator importers not to mention the billion dollar crude pipeline bunkering business. All these leach-like black-market industries would vanish overnight, simply by the application of available technology.

It’s high time the Nigerian government took the bull by the horns in terms of the oil industry while the global demand for crude is still relevant; for with improvements in technology, clean energy sources may power cars and a host of other things in the near future.

Before Turnaround maintenance, expansions or any other large project is carried out with Nigeria’s refineries, the connecting pipeline network, upon which the entire system rests, should first be secured; because the energy sector, and the oil industry and indeed the entire economy depends on the functionality of these piping networks.

 

Wireless leak detection and the end of pipeline bunkering in Nigeria