Pipeline Sabotages - Essay Example

Sabotage: Reflexive Essay The pipeline transportation is a convenient and cost effective way of transporting liquid material from one place to other. This requires one time huge investment in the infrastructure. However the pipelines go through different geographic locations. Pipes are usually passed through different geographic areas and locations. In most of the cases companies try to find the way where the pipelines are passed through the least populated areas. The pipes must be manufactured and maintained according to the environmental aspects like temperature, pressure, oil pressure, volume, density and many others. In this case, the physical attack the sabotage of the pipelines has the single motive of stealing oil and reselling it into the black market. There can be various motives for the sabotage like damage and disruption. These are the first and most common motive of sabotage. This can be result of an instant reaction or a planned activity. Obstruction of normal operations is the second common motive behind sabotage. Sabotage in the present scenario is also combined with other crimes. This increases the impact of the crime by organized crime groups and terrorists. Extortion is other motive for the criminal sabotaging. Protest and Demands can be motives of employees, environmentalists and other groups. “Nigeria is the worlds eighth biggest exporter of crude oil but thieves take a sizeable proportion of its output by drilling into pipelines or hijacking barges loaded with oil, theft known locally as "bunkering". (Javno, 2009) The article provides the incidence of the sabotage for the personal benefits. This resulted in the human life risk and loss, loss to the company is repairing cost, oil loss, and disruption of supply and loss of business. The business environment of the areas can also get labelled for not being safe for business if incidence like these keep happening. The areas covered by the oil companies are huge. It is practically impossible for the company to have alertness through out the pipeline. The business loss, loss of product or oil wastage, defaming are certain issues of concerns for the business organisations in such scenario. It takes time for the organisation to repair and restart the operations. “Some estimates say 100,000 barrels of crude are stolen from the Niger Delta each day, about five percent of the countrys production and equivalent to around $4 million daily or $1.5 billion a year at current prices” (Javno, 2009) The loss as indicated in the above paragraph is huge in terms of the value of the stolen crude oil. Besides the cost of crude oil, the maintenance cost, cost involve in conducting the investigations and the expense of the repairing are also involve in each of the sabotage and stealing case. The cost implications are high in the case of sabotage in the third world countries. The population gets attracted for the activities like sabotage in order to make quick money. People know that this is wrong but they do not realise the extent of the problems created through this. There can be various solutions to these problems of sabotage. The help of defence forces should be taken if required. The losses are high for the oil company. This can have a team build up consisting of different types of professionals fro security specialists to the engineer of the petrochemical divisions. Table: Motives and solution for the Sabotage activity Motives of Sabotage Result Possible Solution Economic problem/ individual interest Oil wastage, business loss, risk to health and life, business loss, maintenance cost, alternative cost of the substitute of product Creating public awareness, providing information regarding employment opportunities, informing people about the risks. Squads and vigilance teams Terrorism Public fear, economic loss, threat to life Public awareness vigilance and security teams Criminal activities Threat on the smooth operations Public awareness vigilance and security teams The approach should be preventive but the team should be trained for any type of counter measure as well. There should be local people employed for the security of the pipelines at the most sensitive or risk areas. The organisation may have awareness campaign that communicates and help people knowing the risk and threats associated to the sabotage of the pipelines. The surveillance equipments and sensors should be installed at different locations to cover the maximum of the risk areas and other areas in general. The security concerns should come from the top management and should be spread to the lowest level of the organisation and the channel partners like suppliers. Obama has stated, "If poverty is a disease that infects the entire community in the form of unemployment and violence, failing schools and broken homes, then we cant just treat those symptoms in isolation. We have to heal that entire community." (Obama, 2007) Actually the root of the problem is the poverty and economic backwardness of the region. This problem can not be solved over the night. This requires long term focus and sustainable approach so that the root cause can be addressed. The oil supplying corporations along with their supply chain partners and government agencies can work together for this approach. The oil companies can have dedicated public relations team and communication programs that help it creating awareness and informing the society about the risk of the sabotage on human life and economic development of the society. The economic loss to the Oil Company and government is huge due to these sabotage related activities. The joint effort of the company and government will allow sharing of infrastructure and preventing the acts of sabotage. Prevention is more important in the case of the sabotage. All the oil companies are involved in certain corporate social responsibility programs. The companies can focus the objectives of their programs to create awareness and allow better opportunities to the local people to deal with the problems led by poverty. Government should take strict measures against the people involve in the acts of sabotage and damage of public or commercial property. The three way approach of creating awareness, regular safety and security checks and strict measures against the crime should help in reducing the number of incidences and business loss. Reference: Oil Thieves Sabotage Chevron Pipeline In Nigeria retrieved on 27 November 2009 from http://www.javno.com/en-world/oil-thieves-sabotage-chevron-pipeline-in-nigeria_240291 Nigerian militants claim oil pipeline sabotage July 8, 2009 retrieved on 27 November 2009 from http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/07/08/nigeria.delta.sabotage/index.html Iraq resumes oil exports to Turkey after pipeline sabotage retrieved on 27 November 2009 from http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091128/wl_mideast_afp/iraqoilturkey Remarks of Senator Barack Obama: Changing the Odds for Urban America July 18, 2007, retrieved on 27 November 2009 from http://www.barackobama.com/2007/07/18/remarks_of_senator_barack_obam_19.php Read More