The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Ltd upped its software spend by 1,866.14 per cent to N66.59 billion in 2023 from N3.39 billion in 2022.
The cost covers software license and maintenance and was disclosed under general and administrative expenses in the state-owned oil company’s 2023 financial results. Specific details regarding the type of software acquired by the NNPC are not publicly available, but the company has historically invested in technology and applications to enhance pipeline security.
According to the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, the country lost about 620 million barrels of crude oil—valued at $46 billion—between 2009 and 2020. In 2022, the NNPC and the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) announced they would install anti-theft integrated monitoring systems on pipelines to monitor the facilities against crude oil theft.
Henry Adimula, the Chief Executive Officer of PTI, said, “We’ve produced an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system for pipeline monitoring, and an air quality monitoring systems. We have Als and have developed a corrosion robot for early detection of localised corrosion and prevent loss of integrity of the facilities, among others.”
Also, in 2022, the NNPC launched the ‘Crude Theft Monitoring Applications’ to curb oil theft and pipeline vandalism. According to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the portal with the address ‘stopcrudetheft.com’ can also be accessed through a mobile phone.
The portal has application options for reporting incidences, with prompt follow-up and responses, and another one for crude sales document validation.
In 2022, Bala Wunti, the group general manager of National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), explained that the country is combining technology with the efforts of national security outfits and communities.
He said, “This is beyond digital control system; it’s also a security system and we are doing it and to tell you that this was built-in by our inhouse software engineers because of the security sensitivities to it because they are customized, the moment you give to somebody who create that.”
Despite this, Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, reported that the country lost 400,000bpd to theft in 2023, and Timipre Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, said the country lost at least 700,000bpd to thieves in 2022.
While NNPC’s tech spend surged by 1,866.14 per cent to N66.59 billion ($73.42 million), Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Saudi Aramco) spent an estimated $3.3 billion on tech in 2023, according to GlobalData, an analytical firm.
The oil company spent this amount on big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (I0T) to digitally transform its operations. “A major share of this spending is earmarked for acquiring software, hardware, and network and communications services from vendors,” GlobalData said.
On its website, Aramco highlighted that its digital transformation program enables it to utilise the latest breakthroughs in digital technology to deliver energy more safely, efficiently, and sustainably.
A recent Fortune report highlighted how Aramco’s investment in AI. “AI will give certain companies a huge advantage over others,” said Ahmad Khowaiter, Aramco’s executive vice president for innovation and technology. “And this is where we believe we are going to be able to take the lead.”
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