Huawei offers ICT solutions to curb oil theft, ramp efficiency

In the face of rising crude oil theft and low oil production due to inefficiencies inherent in the production process, Huawei says it has developed ICT solutions that will address pain points in Nigeria’s upstream production.

Based on Nigeria’s Oil & Gas industry situation and pain points, Huawei has released three scenario-based ICT solutions, said Li Wei, Director of Huawei Nigeria Enterprise Business in a presentation at the recent Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) which was held in Abuja.

The company has developed digital Oilfield IoT for Upstream production and using Huawei’s leading eLTE technology to realize broadband network coverage in oilfield areas, it could help an operator to obtain wellhead production data in real-time, improving operations and maintenance efficiency and increasing single-well yield.

Wellhead production data is crucial to monitor production efficiency and spot problems before they fester. It is also important to detect leaks and quicken the rate of response.

For exploration and production storage for upstream exploration, the company noted that its unified high-performance exploration cloud and storage platform shortens the exploration data processing time, to find out oil quicker and more precisely.

Nigeria has been searching for crude in inland basins to diversify crude oil exploration base beyond the Niger Delta. As more local oil companies take over divested assets, technology will be relevant to maximise production.

To curb crude theft, the company has developed an Intelligent Pipe monitoring for midstream. Wei said the Huawei-developed fibre vibration intrusion warning system uses Artificial Intelligence to identify intrusion scenarios accurately. With high identification precision, accurate positioning, and quick response, helping to ensure pipeline safety and reduce theft and vandalism.

Read also: $2bn lost to oil theft in one year – NEITI

Nigeria lost over $2bn to crude oil theft and vandalism in 2020, prompting the federal government’s revenue from the oil and gas industry to plunge by 40 per cent, says the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Any technology that can fight this menace would improve revenue outcomes for Nigeria.

“As we know, the global economy and oil market are recovering after a historic slump caused by the pandemic in 2020. In addition, the trend of carbon neutrality will trigger structural reform and promote transformation in oil and gas industry,” Wei said.

Facing various challenges, some oil companies have chosen to increase oil and gas production capacity at lower costs and improve enterprise operational efficiency by leveraging technologies including cloud computing, big data, IoT, and AI, etc. “Therefore, Digital transformation has become the consensus in the industry,” he said.

In addition to providing high-quality ICT solutions and services, Huawei says it actively supports the Nigerian government in building a talent ecosystem.

“We have signed ICT academy agreement with over 110 Universities and schools, trained more than 1,000 government civil servants and 40,000 young students in Nigeria. We hope to build a strong talent base camp to promote Nigeria’s digital economy development,” he said.