Posts Tagged ‘Nigeria’

06 Jan 2012

By John Iwori

As efforts to curtail the oil spill at Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company’s Bonga Facility continues, the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has described the incident as a national disaster.

Describing it as the worst oil spillage to hit the country since 1998, the management of Nigeria’s apex maritime regulatory body called for urgent assistance for the affected community, whose waters have been polluted.

According to the management of the agency, which is the eye of the global maritime watchdog, International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Nigeria, millions of aquatic life forms, which the people of the affected communities depend upon for survival, have been destroyed as a result of the oil spill.

Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Ziakede Akpobolokemi, stated this at a briefing in Lagos to give an update on the effect of the Shell’s Bonga facility.

Akpobolokemi, flanked at the briefing by top officials of the agency, including the Executive Director, Maritime Safety and Shipping Development, Dr. Ishiaku Shekarau, said the management of the agency has been informed by Shell about the incident and the need for a joint visit to the facility.

He stated that the joint visit would comprise NIMASA and other government officials as well, and noted that the source of livelihood of the affected communities, especially fishing, has been greatly affected due to the impact of the oil spill.

The NIMASA Director General said besides the negative impact on peoples’ means of livelihood, they no longer have potable water to drink as their source of water has been polluted by the oil spill.

“Further to the report of the preliminary investigation conducted by the agency in respect of Bonga Oil field on December 21, 2011, NIMASA representatives were at the leak location assisting in the rescue effort of the victims of the coastal community within Delta and Balyesa states, namely Aage and Orobiri one and two communities. They used boats from Warri to scrutinise these areas.

“At age community it was the discovered that the oil spill has affected the entire community coastline. At Orobiri one and two the aquatic environment was completely devastated by the spill impact. Water samples are collected from these communities. We were informed by these communities that other government officials and state personnel had earlier visited the area as well,” he said.

He said if Shell was sure that there was spill from third party as earlier alleged, “why are they making frantic effort to get to these almost inaccessible communities.”

“As our technical crew approached these communities, the first thing that greeted them was the sight of coastline demarcated by oil leak and petroleum fumes. The community informed us that the spill drifted to this location on December 21, 2011”, he noted, adding that the community has embarked on personal effort to clean the affected area.

As part of the agency mandate, he told reporters that officials of the agency had carried out an over-fly of the area to observe the extent of the spread of the spill and the danger posed to marine flora and fauna.

He also said the agency’s team is currently at the spilled location to assess the response efforts to ensure strict compliance with relevant regulations.

He added that the agency was in contact with Shell and the Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to ensure that adequate measures are put in place to prevent further degradation of the marine ecosystem.

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James Kimer on January 4, 2012.

As the second largest energy company in the world after Exxon-Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell has been a major player in Nigerian oil and gas from the beginning, overseeing the first commercial export of oil from the country in 1958 from the Oloibiri Field.  Their success over the years has been notable, with operations are spread over 30,000 square kilometres in the Niger Delta, including more than 6,000 kilometres of flowlines and pipelines, 86 oil fields, 1,000 producing wells, 68 flowstations, 10 gas plants and two major oil export terminals at Bonny and Forcados.

But after a number of accidents, attacks by militants, and political scandals, is Shell’s honeymoon with Nigeria coming to an end?  Some recent events and transactions indicate a shift in the Dutch company’s strategy in the country, opening a window of opportunity for new operators.

The past year has battered and bruised Shell’s operations in Nigeria, with both environmental issues and political risk increasing.  Just this week, the company was forced to conduct emergency repairs on a sabotaged trunkline pipeline in Nembe Creek, Bayelsa State, where more than 200 barrels of oil were siphoned off by thieves, forcing Shell to cut production by 70,000 barrels a day during the repairs.  Sabotage and theft by militant gangs is currently on the rise following a brief lull since its height in 2005, while the company reportedly suffers the loss of between 70 to 200 barrels of oil stolen per day.

In December 2010, Shell also experienced its worst oil spill in Nigeria in the past decade, as more than 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled at the offshore Bonga Field (the accident being caused by tanker mishap instead of the usual sabotage).  According to a report in the Washington Post, “Some environmentalists say as much as 550 million gallons of oil poured into the delta during Shell’s roughly 50 years of production in Nigeria — a rate roughly comparable to one Exxon Valdez disaster per year.”

As a result, political pressure against Shell has also been mounting from civil society.  The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth (ERA/FoEN) has been on the offensive since the spill at Bonga Field, issuing statements demanding that the government secure independent verification of spillage data while enforcing clean-up payments.  The company’s environmental and human rights record has been under scrutiny at the highest levels, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) issuing a harsh report in August 2011 that examined the ecological and public health ramifications of oil spills in Ogoniland.  One of the UNEP report’s key findings included the following:  “Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company’s own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.”

Even before all these issues came about, there were indications that Shell may be scaling back its exposure to Nigerian energy.  Shell is the 30% owner of the joint venture Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), which also features major stakeholders such as the state-owned NNPC with (55%), TotalFinaElf (10%) and Agip (5%), which together is responsible for a whopping 50% of all oil production in the country.  However in November 2011, Shell completed the sale of its shares in two major oil producing blocks (OML 26 and OML 42), while at the same time they are working to close ongoing deals to sell their stakes to three other blocks (OML 30, 34 and 40).

Representatives from the company are keen to express that these sales do not represent the beginnings of an “exit strategy.”  According to statements made by SPDC Managing Director Mutiu Sunmonu to NEXT Newspaper, “what we are doing is consolidating our operations to strengthen even our future in Nigeria. We are in Nigeria for the long haul. Some of these assets are of more value to indigenous companies than the multinationals. The sale of marginal oil fields is an exercise aimed at growing indigenous capacity in the upstream oil and gas industry.”

However, it appears that in fact the divestiture strategy is aimed at offloading the most vulnerable assets  in the company’s portfolio – the ones located onshore, and therefore susceptible to attacks, kidnappings, theft, and sabotage, indicating a declining confidence in the state’s ability to maintain law and order in the Delta region.  In recent years, Shell has experienced a steep decline in production among its onshore assets in Nigeria.  In 2009 Shell CEO Peter Voser said that due to violence in the Delta region, production has slacked to 120,000 barrels per day from the previous 300,000 barrels per day.

“The overall security situation is still very fragile, the government had some success with their amnesty programme and we are looking now towards the next few weeks to see how this influences the whole security situation,” Voser told Reuters. “But it would be by far too early to say that it has improved. We are still dealing with the same kind of issues.”

Two years later, it looks like Shell might be losing patience.  The sale of these marginal fields such as OML 40, referring to oil and gas assets that have yet to be developed due to difficult location, infrastructure, and access, are bringing about a sharp increase of participation by indigenous companies.  New players in the Nigerian oil sector include Mike Adenuga’s Consolidated Petroleum, Femi Otedola’s African Petroleum (AP) Consortium, Elcrest, and Neconde Energy.  There are other indigenous companies which are actually backed by international finance, such as Oando (China), Perenco (Afren – a Nat Rothschild entity), and Equinox Group (Gazprom).

But the reasons motivating Shell’s divestitures may be more complex than the challenges of violence, insecurity, and public scrutiny.  After all, the company has survived some of the roughest periods of Nigerian history, including the murder of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa by the Abacha regime, which resulted in a $15 million lawsuit settlement.  In 2008, attacks by militant groups such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had reached such heights, that Shell was forced to steeply cut production, driving global oil prices to record highs well above $120 a barrel.  And yet, despite these harsh circumstances, the company persevered and held on up to the 2009 amnesty, which helped production recover.

The problem for the company may be bigger than just oil spills, theft, and attacks, as some observers point to the pending passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which would revolutionize the tax and royalty structure for international oil companies doing business in Nigeria, carving out a sphere of participation in production and exploration (as opposed to simply regulation) for parastatal companies.  First proposed in 2008 by the presidential administration of Umaru Yar’Adua, the PIB is a complex, 100-page document that has been repeatedly stalled in the legislature due to controversy and disputes over its contents and purpose.  According to the former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, Nasir El-Rufai, international oil companies such as Shell stoutly oppose the passage of the PIB and are actively lobbying against it because the bill contains new royalties structures for offshore production (because the Nigerian government forfeited these rights in a 1991 agreement).

And while the PIB remains stalled, much-needed foreign investment is put on hold.  According to one analyst interview by The Financial Times, “The wait for the adoption of the PIB is very damaging. It’s why the big new investments have been put on hold. The impact becomes exponentially more problematic [because] if reserves don’t get replaced, there is the risk of production capacity in Nigeria dropping for the first time in 30 years.”

As demonstrated by the overwhelming protests and public outrage over President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to remove the fuel subsidy at the New Year, there is a strong social aspect to the country’s economic policies concerning the energy sector.  For most citizens, who live on less than $2 a day, the fuel subsidy was seen as the only way that the oil wealth was shared – and, with its removal, there could be increased public support for the passage of the PIB that aggressively targets the traditional energy players with higher taxes and more difficult conditions.

For the moment, public anger is directed toward President Jonathan and a small group of advisers.  But if this pressure translates into real political costs for the administration, it is possible to imagine President Jonathan finding a scapegoat in the foreign oil companies, and satiating voters with promises to pass the PIB and enforce payments on environmental clean-up costs.  If that’s the case, Shell’s divestitures may accelerate, while local companies – which are in no way more accountable – will take over more and more critical onshore production fields, posing an unknown risk to global energy supplies.

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By Godwin Oritse & Godfrey Bivbere

LAGOS— Management of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, has described the denial of Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, on Bonga oil spill as irresponsible.

Speaking to newsmen in Lagos, yesterday, NIMASA’s Director-General, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi, said the inaction of the international oil firm over the management of the spill left much to be desired.

Shell had reportedly denied that the spill originated from their Bonga Floating Production Storage Off Facility, FPSO, insisting that investigation was still ongoing.

However, Akpobolokemi said: “Shell has not lived up to its responsibility.”

He said Shell, at a point, stated that there was another spill from a third party without proper proof, adding that NIMASA’s investigation revealed that there was no spill from a third party.

He categorically stated that the entire spill was caused by Shell and that the spill came from its Bonga operations 120 nautical miles off Nigerian coast. He noted that the entire ecosystem and aquatic life in that region had been affected, stressing there was near epidemic crisis situation in the area.

Akpobolokemi said: “Shell has neither behaved properly nor responsibly in this matter. Their response to the spill falls short of national and international standards.”

“From our investigation so far, even though the spill was announced December 20, we are sure the spill occurred long before that date.

“I am sure they have tried to cover up the spill until it became unbearable for them and they had no choice than to make the spill public.

“It is evident that from the FPSO to the Single Buoy Mooring, SBM, there are three discharge lines that Shell uses to move crude and these lines have 25 years warranty.

“Two of these lines were built by the same company, but the maker of the last one is unknown to us and these lines have been in operation for only 6 years.

“The pipes are 412 meters below the sea surface, meaning the spill may have occurred days before it came to the surface of the waters.”

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By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo – Jan 3, 2012 5:25 PM GMT

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) shut oil flows of 70,000 barrels a day from the Nembe Creek Trunkline in Nigeria due to a leak caused by the theft of crude.

The pipeline, which supplies the Bonny export terminal, was halted Dec. 24. Shell is working on completing repairs before the end of the month.

“What is really worrying about this leak is that it happened on a facility which was commissioned in October 2009 to replace an old line which was repeatedly targeted by crude oil thieves,” Tony Attah, Shell’s vice president in charge of health, safety and environment, said today in an e-mailed statement.

Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and the fifth- biggest source of U.S. imports. Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., Total SA and Eni SpA run joint ventures with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. that pump about 90 percent of the country’s crude.

More than 200 barrels of crude that leaked after oil thieves installed two valves near a manifold on the pipeline have been cleared up, Shell said.

Europe’s largest oil company shut its 200,000 barrel-a-day Bonga field last month after it leaked less than 40,000 barrels in the country’s worst offshore spill in more than a decade.

Shell on Sept. 26 said it shut 25,000 barrels a day of crude from its Imo River field because of oil theft. The company on Aug. 23 declared force majeure, a legal clause that allows it to miss scheduled deliveries for circumstances beyond its control, on its Bonny Light crude exports after multiple pipeline incidents. The company shut its Adibawa pipeline on Aug. 22 after saboteurs cut crude lines, causing spills.

Attacks by armed groups targeting the oil industry cut more than 28 percent of Nigeria’s crude output from 2006 to 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Attacks subsided after thousands of militants campaigning for more local control of the delta’s energy resources accepted a government amnesty and disarmed in 2009.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net

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Minister of  Petroleum, Mrs Dizeani  Allison Madueke

03 Jan 2012

Federal Government’s total dependence on Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) and its parent company, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, for the clean-up of the recent oil spill in Bonga deepwater oil field has exposed the weaknesses of Nigeria’s regulatory agencies – National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), in carrying out their statutory functions. Ejiofor Alike writes

Bonga Field Project

Nigeria’s oil industry witnessed a new chapter in November 2005, when Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) began crude oil and gas production from the Bonga deepwater oil field, 120 kilometres offshore Nigeria.

Royal Dutch Shell’s former Executive Director in charge of Exploration and Production, Mr. Malcolm Brinded, had noted that Bonga would target an increase of about 10 per cent in Nigeria’s oil production and about 25 per cent increase in Shell-operated production in the country.

“Bonga begins a new chapter in Nigeria’s oil and gas production, and an important contribution to new material oil production for Shell. The project targets an increase of around 10 per cent in Nigeria’s oil production and around a 25 per cent increase in Shell operated production in the country. Nigeria’s deepwater is a frontier growth opportunity for Shell and we have several recent discoveries offshore and a strong acreage position. Bonga is a highly valuable asset for Nigeria and for Shell, and the field is coming on-stream to meet demand at a time when energy prices are high,” he said.

Former Managing Director of SNEPCo, who championed the development of the field, Mr. Chima Ibeneche had noted that the company pioneered the advance into Nigeria’s deep-water frontier, leveraging Shell’s global expertise to discover and develop producible oil and gas.

“Bonga will deliver excellent value to the Government and people of Nigeria, co-venturers, and to the shareholders for many years to come. I would also like to stress that the first oil from deepwater offshore Nigeria would not have been possible without the highly qualified and dedicated staff that have been working on this complex and challenging project within Shell, partner companies, contractors and government,” he said

With a development cost to first oil of some $3.6 billion, Bonga’s target was to attain the nameplate production of 225,000 barrels of oil and 150 million standard cubic feet of gas per day.

Located in Oil Prospecting License (OPL) 212, the 60 square kilometres field is situated in water depths of more than 1000 metres.

Production facilities comprise one of the world’s largest Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessels and deepwater subsea infrastructure.

The field’s initial 16 subsea oil producing and water injection wells are connected to the two million barrel storage capacity FPSO by production flow lines, risers and control umbilicals. It was the first time inconel clad Steel Catenary Risers was used on an FPSO anywhere in the world. The Bonga concession was awarded in 1993 during the first round of bidding for the country’s deepwater frontier acreage.

It is operated by SNEPCo -55per cent, on behalf of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) under a Production Sharing Contract (PSC).

SNEPCo has a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with Esso – 20per cent; Nigerian Agip Exploration Limited (NAE) -12.5per cent and Elf Petroleum Nigeria Limited -12.5per cent.

Project Significance
Shell’s Bonga deepwater field was significant in a number of ways. The project was the first in the world where large steel catenary riser (SCR) was installed on an FPSO. Globally, Bonga project was also the first to use inconel cladding for a dynamic riser application.

The Bonga field also witnessed the first installation of a large diametre steel tube umbilical with bonded composite material cover as gas-lift risers.

These were arranged in dynamic catenary configuration, off a spread moored FPSO, and connected to the base of a steel catenary flow-line riser.

It was also the first, largest and most technologically advanced polyester moored deepwater buoy to be built in Nigeria.

The project also marks the first implementation of large size dynamic flexible pipe – 2.3km long; for oil transfer to a Single Point Mooring (SPM) offloading buoy.

Other the technological feats achieved with Bonga also include the fabrication and installation of the world’s largest deepwater Single Point Mooring Buoy at Nigerdock’s Snake Island yard in Lagos.

Samsung Heavy Industries constructed the 300,000 tonnes FPSO hull in South Korea while AMEC built and integrated the 22,000 tonnes oil processing topsides facilities. Stolt Offshore designed and built the gas export pipelines, the production flow lines, water injection lines and the risers that connect the sub-sea facilities to the FPSO.

SBM and Technip completed all the mooring and installation of the FPSO and SBM Loading Buoy together with the gas lift risers, well jumpers, control umbilicals, production manifolds, and subsea trees. Vetco Gray supplied the sub-sea wellheads, manifolds and control systems.

Militant Attack

Oil and gas production was first interrupted in Bonga in June 2008 when Shell shut down production from the offshore field, after members of the then most powerful militant group in the Niger Delta Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), fired at the facility during an unsuccessful attempt to destroy production infrastructure.

During the attack, an American oil worker, Capt. Jack Stone was captured on a supply vessel in the area by the militant group.

The incident shook the entire oil industry as it was surprising how the militants could penetrate an offshore facility, 65miles away from land.

MEND’s spokesman, Gbomo Jomo, claimed that the main computerised control room responsible for coordinating the entire crude oil export operations from the fields was the main target of the group.

“Our detonation engineers could not gain access to blow it up but decided against smoking out the occupants by burning down the facility to avoid loss of life. Our next planned attack on the oil field would be deadly. We therefore ask all workers in the Bonga field to evacuate for their safety as the military cannot protect them,” he said.

“The location for today’s attack was deliberately chosen to remove any notion that offshore oil exploration is far from our reach. The oil companies and their collaborators do not have any place to hide in conducting their nefarious activities. We use this opportunity to ask the oil majors to evacuate their expatriate staff from Nigeria until the issues in the Niger Delta have been addressed and resolved,” he added.

However, the attack was unsuccessful and after shutting down for few days as a precautionary measure, Shell resumed production in the field.

Maintenance Work
On February 28, 2011, production at Bonga field was again interrupted when SNEPCo shut the FPSO vessel for the first five- yearly mandatory turnaround maintenance.

As part of the efforts to ensure that the routine maintenance met global oil and gas standard, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) hired Lloyds as a consultant to certify the exercise.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By THE NEW YORK TIMES January 2, 2012, 11:39 am

Reuters: The oil-encrusted Atlantic beach in Orobiri, Nigeria, on Saturday.

Nigerian villagers and environmental groups say that oil washing up on the coast must be from the recent Royal Dutch Shell loading accident, which caused the biggest offshore spill in the country’s waters in 13 years. Shell denies that the oil is from the spill, saying its dispersal efforts prevented any of that crude from washing ashore. [Reuters]

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Environmental groups claim the volume of the recent spill was larger than admitted by the oil company

January 1, 2012 – 8:30am | By Tony Tamuno

Contrary to claims by  Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) that the December 20 oil spill in its  Bonga offshore field involved “less than 40,000 barrels”, latest  satellite imaging by United States-based non-profit environmental awareness and protection group,  SkyTruth, reveals that the volume could have been as high as 60,000 barrels.

Environmental analysts say the thickness of the oil slick on the waters adjoining the spill area, estimated at about 120 kilometres offshore Nigeria in the 200,000 barrels per day capacity Bonga oil field, was inconsistent with what Shell claimed as the volume of oil pumped into the ocean.

Shell, which blamed the spill on a leak on the export line linking the Floating Production Storage and Off-take Vessel (FPSO) to a tanker during the process of transferring crude oil, had said that the oil slick following the spill was “less than a hundredth of a millimeter” thick in most areas.

However, the environmental group has pointed out that with an oil slick estimate of 1/100th of a millimeter (an equivalent of 10 microns) provided by Shell, the spill volume could not have been anything less than 58,000 barrels (about 2.4 million gallons) or more.

SkyTruth President,  John Amos, said: “We think the amount spilled is near the high end of Shell’s estimate of “up to” 1.68 million gallons (about 40,000 barrels), based on the size of the oil slick observed and the photos provided showing a rainbow sheen.

“The thickness of “rainbow sheen” is in the 5 to 10 micron range according to the CONCAWE guidelines, and 0.3 to 5 micron range according to the BONN convention. The 5 microns overlap would mean a spill of at least 1.2 million gallons (28,571 barrels).”

Shell, which claimed on Friday that the oil slick has successfully dissipated and dispersed at more than 7.5 kilometres offshore, following the use of chemical dispersants, insists that whatever discrepancy is established between the real size of the spill and what it reported could be other spills from the facilities of other oil companies operating in the area.

However, when contacted SPDC’s Manager, Communications and Media, Tony Okonedo, said he would not comment on claims by SkyTruth, as Shell was not aware of the basis upon which it based its estimates of the spill.

Also, contrary to claims by Shell, as well as a declaration by the Minister of Environment,  Hadiza Mailafia, that the spill has not impacted the environment in some Niger Delta communities, some environmental rights groups in the region have cried out to the government to call the oil company to order.

The National Coordinator, Ogoni Solidarity Forum,  Celestine AkpoBari said President Goodluck Jonathan should emulate his United States counterpart, Barack Obama, who decisively held  BP accountable following the explosion that involved the company’s deepwater oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

“Shell believes it came to Nigeria to do business and not cater for the interest of the people in the area of its operation. Claims that only 40,000 barrels was involved in the Bonga oil field could not be true, just as it has always told lies about oil spills in Ogoniland,” AkpoBari said.

“With a former staff of Shell as the current Minister of Petroleum Resources, no one should expect the company to say otherwise.”

Similarly, a representative of the Ogoni Advancement Organisation, has condemned Hajia Mailafia over her media comments that the oil spill did not impact coastal communities in the region, saying given the situation where the minister was flown to Bonga oil field with an helicopter provided by Shell, there was no way anyone would expect her not to be influenced to be biased in her observations.

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Sopuruchi Onwuka And Napoleon Ehiremen: 28 December 2011

Warri — The crude oil volumes that spilled from Bonga deepwater field has started arriving the coastal communities in Niger Delta, sparking off a spate of public outcry over the dreaded impact on the fragile environment.

Consequently, people of Delta state communities have called on the federal government and Shell to take immediate steps to halt the spill to avoid further damage to their land and sources of water.

The development came as officials of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) arrived at the area yesterday to verify the claims and take samples of the sludgy surge to the coasts.

Shell had reported spill of 40, 000 barrels or 6.5 million liters of crude oil from operated Bonga oilfield located 120 kilometers offshore Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

While government and all the operators in the petroleum industry battle the spill to minimize its impact on the environment, National Oil spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said the crude oil would hit the Niger Delta coasts as from last weekend.

Some inhabitants of some communities in Burutu local government area of delta state had complained of a heavy flow of substance suspected to be crude oil into their territory.

A team from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, who arrived at Warri from Lagos yesterday, went straight to the creeks of Delta State to ascertain the impact of the Bonga oil spill had taken samples of the substance for laboratory analysis.

Deputy Director of NMASA, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, who led the delegation to Beniboye, one of the alleged affected communities in Burutu local government area of Delta State, urged Shell to rush to the area to contain the spill.

He said: “At this particular point in time, we definitely know that there is a spill in the area, but however, Shell did do what they can to contain that particular spill, we do have some more spills offshore area around the Beniboye community of Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State and we have taken samples of that oil, but we cannot at this particular point in time confirm whether it is from the Bonga Oil Spill or not, only a scientific analysis will determine this case.

“But from what our team has just seen, it is appalling, it is not very good to see and as you can see, we are here and the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi was very concerned hence he sent this particular team to go out there and see things for ourselves and probably at some points, bring pressure on the people responsible and possibly we all join our efforts to do something so that the communities in the area do not suffer beyond what they are likely to face at the moment,” he stated.

Responding to a question, Captain Enisuoh who was also accompanied by Marine Environment Team said: “My report is that, we have to do something as soon and as quick as possible before it goes beyond what we have found because the oil in the area we are not going to under estimate the ecological and economic damage it will cause and so we will use this medium to appeal that something is done immediately.

“Shell knows the situation on ground at the moment. I was with the Managing Director of Shell few days ago and he was quick to instruct his officials to clean up any oil in the area irrespective of whether it was from Shell or not which was a very good move and I must commend him for that.

“Like I have said, this one that we have found which is currently threatening the Coast at the moment has to be dealt with immediately and it will not be right to go for or blame somebody. I think the effort should concentrate on fixing the situation as soon as possible.”

Copyright © 2011 Daily Champion. All rights reserved.

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By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press 26 December 2011

ABOARD THE BONGA FLOATING OIL VESSEL (AP) — The worst Nigeria offshore oil spill in more than a decade has been contained before reaching the West African nation’s coast, officials with Royal Dutch Shell PLC said Monday, less than a week after one of its lines bled crude into the Atlantic Ocean.

An investigation into how the spill of less than 40,000 barrels — or 1.68 million gallons — happened remains ongoing, though company officials acknowledged workers only discovered the leak after seeing a sheen of crude in water surrounding its Bonga offshore oil field.

Meanwhile, Shell officials say the company will clean up another spill it discovered while containing its own — highlighting how prevalent pollution remains in oil-stained Nigeria after more than 50 years of production.

“We can undeniably say we traced our oil … and stopped it,” said Cliff Pain, who manages the Bonga operation for a Shell subsidiary.

Shell organized a helicopter flight Monday for journalists to see the Bonga field — controlled from a large ship as opposed to a stationary rig — about 75 miles (120 kilometers) off Nigeria’s coast. There, waters appeared free of the oil sheen as ships continued to patrol along the underwater lines linking the vessel to oil fields and transfer buoys for filling tankers.

The leak discovered Dec. 20 came from a break in a flexible line about 360 meters out from the vessel that sends oil to tankers, Pain said. While the vessel has a variety of gauges to check pressure on the line, it wasn’t until daylight broke that workers noticed a sheen surrounding the Bonga vessel, he said.

It takes about 25 hours to fill a waiting tanker with 1 million barrels of oil from the vessel, Pain said. That means the leak could have spewed for hours before being noticed.

At its height, Shell statistics show the sheen spread across about 350 square miles (900 square kilometers), matching an estimate earlier issued by an independent watchdog group called SkyTruth. Nigerian government officials previously said the spill only affected an area a third that size

Using ships and aircraft, workers spread chemical dispersants to break up the oil, which also evaporated in the region’s warm water and air, said Steve Keedwell, a Shell employee who helped oversee the cleanup operation. Shell ultimately stopped the sheen about 11 miles (18 kilometers) before it made landfall, Pain said.

However, workers then discovered a separate oil spill around the mouth of a river in Delta state, said Mutiu Sunmonu, Shell’s Nigeria country chairman. Sunmonu said samples of the oil showed it came from a different source, though the company would clean it up as well.

“When I sighted it myself, my initial reaction was anger, but I told myself: ‘You know, you just cannot afford to be angry, just deal with it,’” Sunmonu said.

The Nigerian group Environmental Rights Action, which monitors spills around Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, has blamed Shell for the new spill. Nnimmo Bassey, the group’s executive director, could not be immediately reached for comment Monday night.

Shell operates the Bonga field in partnership with Italy’s Eni SpA, Exxon Mobil Corp., France’s Total SA and the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. It produces about 200,000 barrels of oil a day — around 10 percent of production in Africa’s most populous nation. The field remains shut down and Shell officials offered no estimate Monday of when production could resume at a field vital to Nigeria’s government finances.

Nigeria, an OPEC member nation producing about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, is a top supplier to the United States. However, pollution from spilled oil stains its Niger Delta region, with crude lapping against beaches and leaving a black ring around creeks in an area about the size of Portugal.

Some environmentalists say as much as 550 million gallons of oil poured into the delta during Shell’s roughly 50 years of production in Nigeria — a rate roughly comparable to one Exxon Valdez disaster per year. Many blame Shell and foreign companies working in Nigeria for the pollution. However, Shell in recent years has blamed most of its spills on militant attacks or thieves tapping into pipelines to steal crude oil, which ends up sold on the black market or cooked into a crude diesel or kerosene.

Talking with journalists, Sunmonu acknowledged that the limited spill, open ocean and favorable weather had helped Shell quickly contain the spill. If it had been on land, the oil could have sunk into the soil, remaining there for years, he said.

It also would have pushed Shell into negotiations with village elders to clean up the spill, something it often contracts other companies to handle. Many view the company with hostility after its years in the delta, and its employees remain targets of kidnap gangs and militants.

“You don’t have communities to contend with” on the ocean, Sunmonu said.

• Royal Dutch Shell PLC: http://www.shell.com
• Shell’s Nigeria spill website: http://bit.ly/rqfnxi

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Graphics from Guardian newspaper article: Unloveable Shell, the Goddess of Oil

PRESS STATEMENT ISSUED BY MOSOP: 26 December 2011

A measure to make sure that Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Royal Dutch/Shell and others face compelling action to hold them accountable for environmental crimes in Ogoni.

MOSOP President and Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo said that the Ogoni people have learnt the hardest lesson that it was not the wisest thing to do, to allow petroleum operations in Ogoni without a formal Environmental Impact Assessment Study (EIAS).

He said other relevant companies must be required to conduct EIAS to merit continual operations in Ogoni.

Dr. Diigbo said this today, 24th December, 2011 during a MOSOP inter-kingdom assembly held at Akpajo, Eleme near Port Harcourt. He, then, announced the establishment of an Ogoni Environmental Protection Agency (OGEPA), headed by Mr. John Lar-Wisa.

Tambari Deekor
Associate Editor, MOSOP Media
tdeekor88@gmail.com