As oil theft and pipeline vandalism persists, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, says it is working towards the deployment of drones across the nation’s territorial waters to monitor the inwards and outwards movement of oil bearing vessels.
Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Ibe Kachikwu, in a presentation at the special conference on Security in the Gulf of Guinea said the NNPC is working on a range of far reaching options designed to end the ugly episodes of crude and petroleum products theft within the next eight months.
While noting that the resort to the use of marine vessels to convey crude to the refineries is coming at heavy cost, he however explained that beyond the loss of crude and products, the incidents of oil theft have also claimed a huge number of human lives as in the last three years a total of 350 persons including NNPC staff, Police officers and Community members.
The GMD explained that though the Corporation is working assiduously with the law enforcement agencies to increase the presence of military personnel in the area, the ultimate security for the critical oil and gas assets lies squarely with the host communities.
