The focus on innovative security measures has intensified since attacks on oil and gas facilities have been on the rise this year, and has led to Nigeria being exempted from OPEC’s suggested oil production freeze to allow it to restore production.

The Niger Delta Avengers claim to have blown up three trunklines carrying 300,000 barrels of oil a day to Shell's Bonny export terminal in southern Bayelsa state.

The group is demanding a greater share of wealth be spent on ending poverty in local communities, and attacks resumed recently after an amnesty program for former militants led to a period of relative peace until earlier this year.

While talks to resolve the conflict resulted in a delicate ceasefire, those talks stalled at the start of this month, since which time there has been a sharp uptick in attacks.

The group also claimed responsibility for an attack in October against a pipeline as well as a more recent attack which involved the detonation of explosives on the Trans Forcados export pipeline in the creeks of Warri South West Council Area of Delta state.

NDA claimed responsibility on numerous social media channels and claim to have many other pipeline targets planned for the future.

Electro Optical said attacks on utility sites such as pipelines could be devastating on the community, the afflicted company, as well as the targeted country’s economy.

“The revenue loss and repair costs alone are detrimental, not to mention if a person or people are in the line of fire; as such, higher levels of security should be implemented in order to prevent these attacks from reoccurring,” the company said last week.

“Electro Optical Industries offers a solution to address this lapse in security: the industry-leading Spynel thermal imaging system.”

The Spynel cameras are unique, 360-degree thermal imaging systems that take wide-area surveillance to the next level, giving an early intrusion alert to an unlimited number of targets, such as crawling men, small wooden boats, rigid-hulled inflatable boats, unmanned aerial vehicles and stealth aircrafts, among other things, at distances of up to 30km, depending on the threat.

“With a stand-alone, persistent surveillance system that’s previously been deployed to protect critical infrastructures all over the world, Spynel would be able to detect intruders well in advance to allow operators to take precautionary action before they have a chance to inflict damage upon the pipeline,” the firm said.