As a former petroleum minister, President-elect Muhammadu Buhari knows that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) 21 oil depots are not working because the over 5,120km pipelines network connecting the 21 oil depots and 19 pump stations are highly compromised – incessant illegal tapping by oil thieves, sabotage, right-of-way incursions, slow detection of leaks and in-line equipment failure due to inaccessible sites, including the old-fashioned method of managing the pipelines.
To tackle the incessant illegal tapping by oil thieves, sabotage, right-of-way incursions, slow detection of leaks and in-line equipment failure due to inaccessible sites, the Buhari government should go for advanced technologies like SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), Fibre Optic Cable (FOC) and Go-devils/scrapers or Smart pigs (also known as intelligent pigs). SCADA or FOC provides advanced warning in real time which helps pipelines companies to take quick action to protect long-stretch of pipelines network, even if it is located in inaccessible areas where visual inspection might be difficult. The impressive aspect of the SCADA and FOC technologies is that they sense and locate interference before the pipelines damage takes place. Smart pigs are used to detect anomalies in pipelines or other mechanical damages.
For right-of-way incursions, experts argue that the best way to tackle it is via community involvement through sustainable CSR projects and programmes.
To tackle the old-fashioned method of managing the pipelines, the Buhari government should copy Russia and the United States of America, because the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company (PPMC) was not designed to tackle the current challenges. From the economic perspective, only pipeline companies that are designed to generate revenue from their pipelines can effectively run pipelines transportation business under such circumstances Nigeria’s pipelines are subjected to.
The daily business activities of the PPMC are highly skewed toward petroleum products business to the detriment of the pipeline transportation business. Thus, it does not generate revenue from its network of pipelines as it owns the products being transported and the pipelines.
In countries where pipelines management is profit-oriented, pipeline companies do not usually own the products they transport. They are simply intermediaries that move the products for their customers. So running the pipelines business is their flagship which gives them comparative advantage in many areas – maintaining an effective security against sabotage, illegal tapping and quick detection of leaks and in-line equipment failure, and most importantly, continued innovation in the business. Though these are difficult to achieve, pipelines companies that are profit-driven have shown they are possible. The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission data showed that the top 10 U.S. oil pipeline operators’ annual net income is over $6.1 billion.
The Russians have what they call “Pipeline Troops”, who are trained to build, maintain and secure pipelines.
The NNPC has an excellent structure that segments its network of pipelines into ‘systems’. System 2B transports petroleum products from the Atlas Cove to five oil depots in the southwest – Mosimi, Ibadan, Ilorin, Satellite (Ejigbo) and Ore. System 2E and 2EX connects Port Harcourt Refinery with depots in Calabar, Aba, Enugu, Makurdi and Yola. System 2C and 2CX connects Warri Petro-Chemical Refinery with depots at Benin, Suleja and Minna, while System 2D and 2DX connects Kaduna Refinery with depots in Kano, Gusau, Jos, Gombe and Maiduguri. All these systems are interconnected, thus a failure in one place virtually affects the entire nation.
The 21 oil depots will never work as they ought to if the management of the pipelines in not remodelled. The pipelines are also shouting ‘CHANGE’ and ‘SAI BABA BUHARI’. I hope the people’s General has listened to them.
Zayyad I. Muhammad
