DOWNSTREAM OIL THEFT: COUNTERMEASURES AND GOOD PRACTICES
Concrete Countermeasures
U
S Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously wrote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; an electric light the most efficient policeman.”1 The common denominator of both is visibility. Concrete countermeasures are primarily about this sort of visibility, both of the actual flows of legitimate fuel supply chains and of activity in the physical spaces surrounding those flows. These forms of visibility serve a dual purpose. First, they allow regulatory and law enforcement agencies to determine what sort of fuel-related crimes are being perpetrated, at what scale, and in many cases, at what points along the supply chain. Second, by shining a light on the areas in which crime proliferates, concrete countermeasures add considerably to the “risk” side of criminals’ risk-reward calculus. They can be extremely effective deterrents. Concrete countermeasures can, therefore, serve as a first line of defense against downstream theft,
diversion, and fraud. Though the oil and gas industry already incorporates some sophisticated tools for monitoring and securing its physical infrastructure, most of which fall under the heading of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), they are largely beyond the scope of this report, though there may be some overlap in the relevant technologies. This first section will address a range of tools, from fuel integrity programs to sophisticated technologies for collecting and integrating data on fuel flows, that can function effectively within a suite of measures countering downstream crime.
Fuel Integrity Programs
F
uel integrity programs are designed to provide as much visibility as possible into fuel stocks and flows in order to counter various forms of tampering and diversion. Though these programs involve a number of components, including
A man sits on a beach with the Petrobras fuel tanks in the background in the Guanabara bay in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Source: REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
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Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1914, 92, http://www.gutenberg.org/ files/57819/57819-h/57819-h.htm.
