FG Partners With PTI to Curb Oil Theft, Installs Anti-Theft Systems

The Federal Government has partnered with the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) to install anti-theft monitoring systems on oil pipelines to curb oil theft.

This information was disclosed by Henry Adimula, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Petroleum Training Institute, in Abuja on the institute 50th anniversary.

Henry said that the institute has produced an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system for pipeline monitoring, and an air quality monitoring system, which is one of the recent innovations of the institute.

He said, “We’ve produced an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system for pipeline monitoring, and an air quality monitoring systems.

“We have AI’s and have developed a corrosion robot for early detection of localized corrosion and prevent loss of integrity of the facilities, among others.”

Awed by the innovation, Mele Kyari, the CEO of the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation (NNPC) expressed how pleased he was to receive such news.

He said, ” I’m happy to hear that the PTI has produced solutions that will be able to monitor pipelines.”

Kyari informed the CEO of the Institute, that NNPC is willing to work together with the institute to successfully deploy the technology to further tighten securities on the pipelines which in turn would address crude oil theft in Nigeria.

He said, “We need to produce oil and gas. We are trying to address the massive oil theft. We will overcome it, but it is something we also need to work together to resolve.”

Nigeria, the largest crude oil producer in Africa is an oil dependent country, that serves its economy from the sales of crude oil and has recently been losing billions of dollars to oil theft.

Following a series of oil theft, illegal tappings and other insecurity issues that have plagued the Nigerian economy, the country’s foreign revenue is witnessing a decline. Oil production in the country dropped to 937,766 barrels per day in September 2022.

The underproduction of crude oil has placed Nigeria fourth on the list of crude oil producers in Africa from its position as first place, according to OPEC.