Oil Theft: Neconde Energy Emerged With Alternative Evacuation Technology

Neconde Energy Limited has stated that it emerged with the Alternative Evacuation Technology, AET, in order to tackle oil theft and pipeline vandalism in Nigeria.

In an interview, the Chief Technical Officer, Neconde Energy Limited, Mr. Ifeanyi Ezuka, said: “This AET has a combination of technical and logistical issues. In Nigeria, we have the Forcados, Bonny, Brass and Escravos terminals, where crude oil is exported. Over the years, the pipelines that take oil to these terminals have become targets for vandals.

“Sometimes, the pipelines become targets whenever there are social and other issues with stakeholders, especially the government and communities, thus affecting operations. But with this system, we can now have control over the value chain.”

He said: “It should also be noted that when we bought the asset from Shell, the mechanism in use was only able to separate oil from gas. But we had to put in place a mechanism to separate oil, gas and water before transporting it through barges. In other words, we had to convert our facilities to have the capability to separate water and provide dry oil that meet export quality.

“In the Nestoil Group, we have companies that fabricate these vessels as well as companies that did engineering. Specifically, Impac Engineering did the detailed engineering and then handed it over to our fabrication company, known as Energy Works Technology (EWT). EWT fabricated the systems and then we transported everything to the field base for installation and integration. We also got one equipment – the crude oil dehydrators – from the United States for installation before the commissioning process started.”

Source: Vanguard