By Michael Onunwa
“I conquer my enemies when I make them my friends” –Abraham Lincoln.
Nigeria’s continental ranking in crude oil production suffered yet another dip in the month of March. For the second time in four months, Angola beat the once undisputed largest producer in Africa. Data from the April Market Report of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) indicates that Nigeria produced 1.677 million barrels per day in March, down from 1.744 million bpd in February, while the Angolan oil output rose from 1.767 million bpd to 1.782 million for the same period.
A major contributory factor to the huge loss in production is the endemic challenge of pipeline vandalism. The constant intrusion on pipelines by vandals means a constant interruption of production flow for repairs which cost, not just time and money, but also adversely impact on the myriad of other economic activities that thrive on energy supply.
One of the most strategic pipelines in the nation’s entire network is the Trans Forcados Pipeline (TFP) system. As the second largest network in the Niger Delta, TFP transports oil, water and associated gas from fields in the western delta to the Forcados oil terminal. The terminal has an oil export capacity of 400,000 b/d with a 31 kilometre of pipeline delivering crude to offshore loading berths for export.
“Once Trans Forcados is down, all of us suffer. In 2014 we budgeted 35 days of outage but we ended up suffering 75 days of outage. In the first 30 days of 2015, we suffered 15 days of outage. So, the Trans Forcados remains a huge problem for all of us, producers in the western Niger Delta, who deliver crude to Forcados. When it is down, everybody suffers; we have production outage and therefore, for the period, there is no production for the country,” CEO of Seplat, Mr. Austin Avuru reportedly said.
In a desperate search for a lasting solution to the problem of incessant pipeline vandalism, the Federal Government, according to the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibanjo, is reportedly considering deploying more sophisticated military machinery in the region to protect the oil infrastructure.
Lamenting the damage to Nigeria’s production capacity due to the destruction of oil and gas facilities in the Niger Delta by pipeline vandals, Osinbajo said the country was “losing thousands of barrels of production. We are not able to produce as much as we ought to. About 250,000 barrels are lost per day. We are losing large sums of money daily. We look for alternatives while we look forward to repairing the pipelines.”
While acknowledging that a lot of effort is going into pipeline protection, the Vice President said, “We must meet current vandalism challenges but also look into what we can do in the future.One of the future steps the Buhari administration could take to forestall the perpetration of vandalism, is to establish a permanent pipeline security force (who) would be armed with sophisticated weapons to ensure we contain the vandalism and overhaul security.”
It will be recalled that in 2012, the former Joint Task Force (JTF) operating in the Niger Delta was reconstituted and renamed Operation Pulo Shield: Pulo is an Ijaw word for “Oil”. The operational scope of the task force, which initially covered Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers was extended to cover nine states, namely Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.
So far, Operation Pulo Shield has recorded some marginal successes. From arresting some suspected pipeline vandals to destroying illegal refineries and even rescuing a kidnapped soldier, the men and officers of the task force have faithfully pursued their mandate, even at great risks and sacrifices. Numerous raids have yielded the confiscation of various numbers of arms and ammunition and sometimes, with barges, boats and stolen crude or other petroleum products seized from the perpetrators. Yet, pipeline vandalism, illegal refineries and kidnapping and other forms of violence persist..
But, the stark reality is that the use of military force and sophisticated equipment will never guarantee the lasting safety of oil installations in the country. Our experiences as a nation have proven that lasting peace and security cannot be forced on a people. The temporary restraint occasioned by the use of force will only remain as fragile as to be shattered at the slightest provocation.There are over 21, 000 kilometres of pipeline criss-crossing the nation through several communities. To imagine the size of the workforce and the equipment required to protect that stretch of pipeline is very difficult to contemplate, especially given the state of our tottering economy.
Undoubtedly, a more rewarding and sustainable path is for government at all levels, in collaboration with the oil and gas companies which are physically closer to the communities, to fashion and implement wider reaching policies capable of being felt by the commonest of the community inhabitants, regardless of status. Rewarding vocal or violent community members with contracts and other such incentives will only fertilise the mentality that violence and crime are more rewarding than peace. Government can adopt a strategy of rewarding communities that refrained from using violence in communicating to the authorities. Meanwhile, grievances expressed via non-violent means must be attended to. Most times, these grievances are not necessarily monetarily induced. As a matter of fact, building community relations on a non-financial base would offer a more concrete pedestal for a more meaningful relationship.
In planning projects for community development, there must be a change of approach from throwing money at the community and abandoning them to embark on whatever project they like. Such approach ensures that the monies will almost always find their ways into private pockets. Any meaningful approach to community development must be designed to deliver an increased quality of life to the local communities. Training, follow-up, long term planning, and capacity building for local authorities will empower the communities to take greater responsibility for their own lives and decrease the failure rate of community assistance projects.
Instead of giving more consideration to the military option, the Federal Government needs to reflect on why, despite years of military presence and the use of force, the problems of pipeline vandalism, oil theft, and illegal refineries and so on still persist? It is high time we deviated from the use of force and channel such resources to community engagement, inclusion and partnership. Giving them a sense of belonging and participation as important stakeholders within their respective communities is key to a lasting solution to the problems before us.
And who is in a better position to do this than the oil companies they live, work and eat with every day of their lives? All the government needs to do is to provide the right policy framework to encourage such companies. Whatever necessary concession on the part of the government will certainly be more rewarding than any spending on display and possible use of force and the inevitable casualties.
Onunwa writes from Lagos via [email protected]