Nigeria to deploy drones to combat oil theft

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will deploy drones across the territorial waters of Africa's largest oil producer as part of a series of new efforts to help curb rampant oil theft, a company official said Tuesday.

Millions of dollars in oil is stolen daily in Nigeria and the government estimates around 250,000 barrels of oil are lost to oil thieves per day.

The corporation is launching an "armada of approaches which will include incorporation of drones to check movements of vessels within our territorial waters, " Managing Director Ibe Kachikwu said in a statement.

"We are looking at the current logistical nightmares of changing staffing at the loading bay of crude oil export terminals virtually every 90 days," Kachikwu added.

The measures aimed at ending rampant theft within eight months also include looking at arming the navy with equipment to help them with their patrols and working with law enforcement to increase its presence in the area to protect pipelines, he said.

Kachikwu said that between June 2014 and June 2015, the corporation recorded between 3, 500 to 4,000 theft attempts at the various products pipelines across the country.

"The best security for these pipelines lies with the communities. We are trying to create enough incentives for them to see these pipelines as their own," Kachikwu said.

Oil companies blame oil spills on gangs who break into pipelines to steal crude. Earlier this year Shell, the largest oil company operating in Nigeria, agreed to pay $83.5 million to a fishing community in the Niger Delta, who argued the company isn't doing enough to maintain and protect its pipelines from being sabotaged by oil thieves.

While income from agriculture and other industries has increased, Nigeria depends on oil for about 80 percent of its revenue and 95 percent of foreign reserves.

Wire services