Effectiveness of disaster management strategies employed by oil companies and government agencies towards oil pipeline vandalism in selected states in Niger Delta, Nigeria

Abstract

The effectiveness of disaster management strategies as it relates to oil pipeline vandalism in not a job for one but for all stakeholders in the oil industry, this however necessitated the need for this study which is targeted at examining the effectiveness of disaster management strategies employed by oil companies and government agencies towards oil pipeline vandalism in selected states in the Niger Delta. The study adopted the cross sectional research design where the simple random techniques was adopted as the method for the distribution of the research instrument. The study made use of questionnaire as the research instrument which was distributed to 400 respondents sampled across the selected State, Local Government Areas and Communities but only 392 copies were completely filled and returned for the study. Hypothesis for the study was tested with the aid of the Chi-Square statistical tool. The findings of the study showed that the effectiveness of disaster management strategies adopted by government agencies and multi nationals are less effective, it also revealed that management strategies adopted by the government and its agencies is less effective for prevention/mitigation, for preparedness, response and recovery/rehabilitation activities. The study concluded that the event of vandalism has impacted negatively on the Nigeria oil production as well as economic advantage. At various administrative eras, the more the government develop new strategies to tackle vandalism, the more the vandals devise another means to carry on their activities and that various disaster management strategies adopted by oil companies and government and its agencies are either less effective or ineffective and required a change in strategy. The study however, recommends that; government and multinationals should adopt disaster management strategies that are community based, that integrates the locals in the management of pipeline vandalism to curtail incidences of pipeline vandalism and the need for government and multinational collaborations in determining and framing strategies that are effective using international best practices.