State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) will install anti-theft integrated monitoring systems on pipelines to monitor crude oil theft, The Punch newspaper said.

Nigeria has been losing billions of dollars over the years amid pipeline vandalism.

PTI Chief Executive Henry Adimula revealed that the institute has developed an oil anti-theft integrated monitoring system.

A corrosion robot and artificial intelligence (AI) will help in the early detection of localised corrosion and prevent loss of integrity of the facilities, he said.

NNPC will work with the institute to deploy the technology to boost the monitoring of its pipelines to address crude oil theft, said Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari.

Earlier, NNPC Chief Financial Officer Umar Ajiya said the company loses almost $150 million due to vandalism every two days.

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com )