SHELL DEPLOYS STATE-OF-THE-ART EQUIPMENTS TO TRACK OIL SPILLS, VANDALIZED PIPELINES
OGHENETEJIRI NYERHOVWO
In a determined bid to curb increasing wave of illegal breaches on it’s pipelines, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has deployed state-of-the-art high definition cameras to fight crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and quick response to crude oil spills from its facilities in the Niger Delta region.
This was disclosed by Mr. Igo Weli, General Manager, SPDC at a one day media workshop with journalists in Warri, he said that Shell it losses over 11,000 barrels of crude oil daily to the activities of oil thieves, just as he lamented that third party interference and illegal refineries were responsible for over 90 per cent spills in the region
Mr. Weli who was represented by Mr. Allayed Dokubo, Manager, Government and Community Relations said that the HD cameras will also help in tracking vandalism of SPDC joint venture assets in the region noting that there was need for stakeholders including the community leaders and journalists to take the fight against crude oil theft in the region personal for the sake of future generation.
He further disclosed that Shell had implemented anti-theft protection mechanisms on key infrastructure such as wellheads and manifolds to ensure that constant attacks from vandals are checked with the intent to prevent and minimise sabotage-related spills.
According to Mr. Weli, 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 ‘critical national assets, adding, “the cameras are attached to specialised helicopters which carry out daily overflight over our facilities. This measure has improved the surveillance of our Joint Venture assets.”He spoke further, “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.”
The General Manager of SPDC said that the Nigeria’s leading oil giant would sustain its air and ground surveillance to complement the efforts of government security forces in checking crude theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining, he used the opportunity to solicit community’s cooperation to take ownership of their environment to ensure that it remained green, adding, “but for the efforts of Operation Delta Safe in protecting critical oil and gas assets, the situation would have gone beyond control.”
In a presentation, Chidube Nnene-Anochie, General Manager, Safety and Environment, SPDC represented by Temitope Ajibade, SPDC’s Compliance Monitoring Lead disclosed that the majority of spill incidents on SPDC pipelines were as a result of sabotage.
According to him, “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 most environmental damage from oil and gas operations in the Niger Delta.”
According to Nnene-Anochie, “Shell removed more than 1,160 illegal theft points from its pipelines between 2012 and end of 2018, the attendant spills from the theft points were sometimes made worse by challenges of access to the incident sites to investigate and stop leaks. We track the progress of our spill response from when we learn about the leak to when clean-up is completed and certified by regulators.”
Nnene-Anochie added, “a key priority for Shell in Nigeria remains to achieve the goal of no spills from our operations. No spill is acceptable and we work hard to prevent them. However, SPDC cleans and remediates areas impacted by spills from its facilities irrespective of the cause.”
Speaking further, Nnene-Anochie disclosed that other steps aimed at stemming crude theft include promotion of alternative livelihoods through Shell’s flagship youth entrepreneurship programme, Shell LiveWIRE, adding, “between 2003 when Shell LiveWIRE was launched in Nigeria and now, the programme has trained 7,072 Niger Delta youths in enterprise development and provided business start-up grants to 3,817.”
END
