Menace of pipeline vandalism: Green Team initiative to the rescue
The oil and gas industry has continued to suffer from pipeline vandalism both in the upstream and downstream operations. The sabotage of pipelines is a major problem in Nigeria resulting in massive oil theft that has cost the country billions in lost revenue. It is estimated that Nigeria loses about $6billion yearly from crude oil theft. Between the year 2009 and 2012, the country lost N165billion to products theft.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said in its latest annual statistical bulletin that incidents of pipeline vandalism rose by 4.54 per cent in 2014, compared to the situation in the preceding year. According to the NNPC, “a total of 3,732 line breaks was reported on NNPC pipelines out of which 3,700 was as a result of vandalism, while 32 cases were due to system deterioration leading to a revenue loss of some about $299 million in 2014”.
Major oil operators have blamed repeated oil thefts and sabotage of key pipelines as the major cause of spills and pollution. Tackling the menace of pipeline vandalism has, therefore, become a daunting challenge for both the government and private sector players in the oil and gas industry.
Seven Energy’s Green Team model
Seven Energy is an indigenous Nigerian oil and gas exploration, development, production and distribution company with significant oil and gas assets and integrated operational gas infrastructure. To date, the total length of its pipeline infrastructure is about 228 kilometres (km) out of which 113km are land based while the remaining length runs through rivers and swamps. Since it commenced operations, Seven Energy has witnessed no single incident of vandalism on its pipeline infrastructure.
“While others lay pipeline and walk away, Seven Energy stays with the local communities where its pipeline traverses”, Philip Ihenacho, chief executive, Seven Energy told Businessday in an exclusive interview on the sidelines of Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja earlier this year.
Part of that stayingpower with its host communities is the “Green Team” initiative. According to Nkoyo Etuk, Senior Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, “the Green Team initiative is a community-based approach used by Seven Energy to maintain, monitor and clear the right of way for its pipeline infrastructure”.
The Green Team model involves using locals to maintain the right of way of its pipeline infrastructure demonstrating a long-term commitment to the communities’ footprint through which the pipeline traverses. Instead of using contractors, the Green Team initiative entails direct engagement of the locals through call-off contracts,usually one year tenure, signed by the individual working on the right of way. The call-off contracts are renewable at the end of the tenure year based on performance.
To date, a total number of 171 community youths have been engaged by Seven Energy through its Green Team initiative. The terms and conditions of the engagement are clearly spelt out and payment is made directly to the personal account of the participants. The initiative has, thus, created opportunities for meaningful engagement of the youth within the host communities, thereby reducing social vices arising from joblessness.
A key aspect of Green Team model is stakeholder engagement and sensitization which should be done months before ever moving into the communities to lay the pipes. This has allowed for community participation and engenders sense of ownership of the pipeline integrity.
“My very first impression of Seven Energy is their willingness to let those who are valued stakeholders understand what they are doing and how they are going to do it”, said Ene Umoh, Paramount ruler of Odukpani local government area of Akwa Ibom state in the company’s 2014 Sustainability report.
For Seven Energy, the critical aspect of the sensitization deals with ensuring that the local communities understand that its pipeline infrastructure is a gas pipeline and not an oil pipeline which makes vandalisation of any part of it an unprofitable and a high risk venture. The communication strategy adopted in handling the sensitization and engagement is also community-specific; integrating town hall meeting, use of town criers and sensitization in churches and schools. As part of ensuring that all stakeholders are carried along, Seven Energy involves regulatory agencies including the federal and state ministry of environment in its sensitization activities.
Seven Energy also provides work tools, which includes personal protective equipment(PPE) and regular supervision is carried out by itscorporate social responsibility (CSR) team. Before commencement of every work programme, safety and security inductions are done.
“Seven Energy seeks to protect the health and safety of everyone that is involved in its activities, the people who come into contact with its operations and the health and sustainability of the environments in which it operates”, said Dr. Glenn Bestall, Vice President, QHSSE/CSR.
Take-aways from the Green Team
Various models of pipeline protection for the oil and gas industry have been deployed with little success. The use of ethnic militias by the Jonathan administration did not yield much result either. The idea being mooted at the moment in the media and public industry forum is the use of drones.
Already, there are reports that the Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) is testing a new weapon: a drone outfitted with an infrared camera. It is designed to use GPS to document the times and places where vandals are observed. Flying at an altitude of some 150 meters, it will be able to keep watch for more than 80 minutes at a time, quietly whizzing through the sky at up to 54 kilometers per hour allowing the NSDC personnel to observe large areas in a short amount of time.
As good as the use of drone idea sounds, it will create a siege mentality which is at the root of most agitations in oil producing communities. It also misses out the human factor and sense of ownership of the pipeline infrastructure engendered by community involvement and participation which is at the root of the success of the Green Team initiative. There are so many take-aways from this initiative for the government and other players in the industry to adopt and explore ways of improving on the concept.
During a recent media tour of its land-based right-of-way, we observed that the implementation of the Green Team by Seven Energy has produced amazing result producing a clear right-of-way for its pipeline infrastructure which had allowed for free and conducive operationsas well as helps the emergency response team access the right-of-way in a timely manner. It has also ensured the safety of Seven Energy’s pipeline infrastructure and also proved to be very cost effective.
Due to the sense of ownership by the Green Team members, it has served as indicator to third parties planning or undertaking construction of any sort either on or in close proximity to the right-of-way. To date about 35 issues mostly of encroachment were identified by the Green Team members and the issues were quickly resolved before it progressed to crisis situation. A database of encroachment issues has also been established on the feedback from the Green Team thereby helping Seven Energy to enhance the effectiveness of engagement.
Green Team has also played a role in safeguarding the environment through early identification of erosion spots and reducing environmental hazards by checking and correcting minor erosion and reporting major ones for proper attention.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM