• Engineers demand compliance with professional standards

The increase in cases of oil spill and loss of crude oil in the country has been attributed to the aging pipelines laid by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) and other oil companies over 40 years ago, without interview.

This comes as the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has called on the Federal Government and oil sector operators to apply local content and professional standards in the installation of pipelines, stressing that non-professionals from other countries are presented as experts in the country.

Stakeholders, speaking at the Nigeria International Pipeline Technology and Safety Conference in Abuja, said Nigeria must find an innovative way to resolve the pipeline crisis for crude oil, petroleum products and gas.

With more than 5,120 kilometers of NNPC pipelines in ruins, most downstream operators have over the years relied on trucks, which have consistently killed thousands, destroyed properties and caused environmental disaster in the long term.

Furthermore, most upstream operators are also adopting the option of trucks to transport crude, even as the country grapples with low crude oil production and production of over $40 per barrel oil.

According to Eloho Amagada, principal consultant of Amelin Energy Limited, with pipelines in Nigeria being over 40 years old, Nigeria faces vulnerability to leaks and bursts.

Amagada noted that aging infrastructure was a major cause of oil spills, accounting for about 50 percent of all spill incidents in the country. He noted that weak regulation was only worsening the situation of pipelines in the country, even though only 30 percent of pipelines were undergoing scheduled maintenance in the country.

Akintunde Fadare, Director of Operations at Geoplex DrillTeq, citing reports from the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, lamented that about 400,000 barrels of crude oil are stolen daily, resulting in large deficits of income.

Fadare said countries across the world were adopting advanced strategies to enhance pipeline safety with technology playing a central role and as such, Nigeria should move in this direction.

NSE President, Margaret Oguntala, while denouncing the involvement of unprofessional foreigners in laying pipelines, said there was a need to prioritize local content to address pipeline challenges in the country.

Oguntala noted that technological advancements, including real-time monitoring and predictive analytics, must be implemented to enable early detection of failures, reduce downtime and minimize accidents.