Posts Tagged ‘Oil Spills’

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.

SOURCE ARTICLE

By JON GAMBRELL, Associated Press 22 December 2011

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — An oil spill near the coast of Nigeria is likely the worst to hit those waters in a decade, a government official said Thursday, as slicks from the Royal Dutch Shell PLC spill approached the country’s southern shoreline.

The slick from Shell’s Bonga field has affected 115 miles (185 kilometers) of ocean near Nigeria’s coast, Peter Idabor, who leads the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, told The Associated Press. Idabor said officials expect the slick to reach beaches by Thursday afternoon.

Shell, the major oil producer in Nigeria, said Wednesday the spill likely occurred as workers tried to offload oil onto a waiting tanker. The company published photographs of the spill, showing a telltale rainbow sheen in the ocean, but said it believes that about 50 percent of the leaked oil has already evaporated.

The source of the leak has been plugged, Idabor said, but the spill still threatens the shoreline and wildlife. Idabor said experts from Britain were coming to help with the cleanup.

Shell announced Wednesday that the Bonga spill likely was less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons. That’s about the same amount of oil spilled offshore in 1998 at a Mobil field. The 1998 spill saw oil slicks extended for more than 100 miles (some 160 kilometers) to Lagos, the country’s commercial capital.

“Since the Mobil spill, this is just about the most major one,” Idabor said.

Nigerian authorities hope to use oil booms and chemicals to disperse or collect the spilled oil, Idabor said. In a statement, Shell said its Nigerian subsidiary already had sent ships out to the slick to use dispersant on the oil sheen. The company also said it would use infrared equipment to trace places where the sheen is the thickest.

Bonga sits about 75 miles (120 kilometers) off Nigeria’s coast. It can produce about 200,000 barrels of oil and 150 million cubic feet of gas a day, according to Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. Production at the field, which Shell operates in partnership with the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., has been halted since the discovery of the spill.

Environmentalists blame Shell and other foreign oil firms for polluting the country’s oil-rich Niger Delta. 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. An estimated 11 million gallons was released during the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska.

Shell in recent years has said most of the spills in the delta are caused by thieves tapping into pipelines to steal crude oil, which ends up sold into the black market or cooked into a crude diesel or kerosene. Apparently predicting interest in the spill would grow, Shell already had taken out Internet advertising Thursday on search engines, directing those searching for the spill to their website.

Slicks from the Bonga spill likely will reach beaches near the Forcados River delta on Thursday, affecting wildlife there, Idabor said.

Nigeria, an OPEC member nation producing about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day, is a top supplier to the U.S.

• 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

* “Less than 40,000 barrels of oil” leaked – Shell

* Field produces 10 pct of Nigerian oil exports

* Shell says oil flow now halted

By Emma Farge

LONDON, Dec 21 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell is shutting down its huge 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) Bonga oilfield off the Nigerian coast after a leak occurred while loading a tanker on Tuesday, the firm said in a statement.

The Anglo-Dutch oil major said “less than 40,000 barrels of oil” had leaked into the ocean. The flow of oil had now halted, a spokesman said.

The leak occurred while a tanker was loading oil from Shell’s Bonga facility, about 120 kilometres off the coast of the West African nation, according to the statement.

Shell’s pipelines in Nigeria’s onshore Niger delta have spilled several times, which the company blames on sabotage attacks and oil theft.

Bonga accounts for around 10 percent of monthly oil flows from OPEC member Nigeria, the continent’s largest exporter of crude oil, according to Reuters data.

“We are sorry this leak has happened. As soon as we became aware of it, we stopped the flow of oil and mobilised our own resources, as well as industry expertise, to ensure its effects are minimised,” said Shell Nigeria Country Chair Mutiu Sunmonu.

“It is important to stress that this was not a well control incident of any sort, and to make clear that no one has been injured. Our focus now is on a speedy and effective clean-up,” he added.

BP’s Macondo well ruptured in April last year, causing nearly 5 million barrels of oil to spew into the sea in what was the worst U.S. marine oil spill.

Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company is 100 percent owned by the Anglo-Dutch oil major.

FLOW HALTED

A Shell spokesman said the flow of oil had been halted on all three of the platform’s export lines where it is believed that the leak occurred.

An investigation will be launched into the reasons for the leak, he said, without giving a timeframe for the restart of production.

The company had not declared force majeure, a legal clause allowing a company to miss deliveries due to circumstances outside its control, he added.

Shell’s share price fell during the day by more than 1 percent on Wednesday to 2,274 pence by 1405 GMT. Brent oil prices were up 63 cents at $107.36 a barrel by the same time.

Oil traders and analysts said the Bonga closure could be supportive both for Brent oil futures and other Nigerian crude streams, where demand is expected to increase.

“Given the current sensitivity to potential supply disruptions and rising geopolitical tensions it just adds to the uncertainty in 2012… It will limit the downside on Brent should broader market sentiment turn,” said Andrey Kryuchenkov of VTB Capital.

Bonga was due to load around 161,000 bpd on five tankers in January, according to oil loading programmes.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Joy Olekanma: 14 August 2011

“Oil companies in Nigeria should save as much as they can for the days of darkness which are not afar”.

SOURCE ARTICLE

STATEMENT ISSUED BY MOSOP: 12 August 2011 21:46:01 GMT+01:00

The Movement for Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, speaking through its President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo has said that UNEP Ogoniland Assessment Report was already building up tension in Ogoniland and sowing seeds of inter and intra communal conflicts and war.

Diigbo said that the two Bodo oil spills reported in The Guardian, London published on August 3, 2011 for which Shell was said to have  admitted responsibility for (involving hundreds of millions of dollars), are in Gokana of Ogoniland, but the UNEP Ogoni Report states that the two oil spills are in Bolo and Ogu local government area, which is outside Ogoniland.

“Bodo West is officially mapped as belonging to Ogu/Bolo LGA but since there are no local settlements, it has been regarded by both SPDC and the Ogoni people as part of the Ogoniland oil facilities. Bodo West was therefore included in the scope of UNEP’s work,” says the report.

Dr. Goodluck Diigbo points out: “This is a tricky clause in the report, which can create confusion and grounds for the usual excuse by Shell not to fulfill its obligation to the Bodo people. I think this is why a critical review of the report is imperative because it is already sowing seeds of conflicts within and between the Ogoni people and their neighbors. I hope that others would not claim what is not theirs, but an early intervention by the United Nations and other NGOs that are interested in conducting an independent review can be helpful. Although there are six kingdoms and two administrative units and over 200 villages in Ogoniland, yet, the UNEP report names one traditional ruler as the overall paramount ruler of Ogoniland. Other traditional rulers believe the report is troublesome. A careful review will prove to the United Nations and the rest of the world that the UNEP Ogoniland Report was not handled with due diligence, but that it still can provide a way forward. At the moment, Shell has not refuted that our statement that it paid for the report. Why is it so difficult to hold those that paid for the UNEP report accountable for oil damages in Ogoniland, since it is the practice that the polluter pays for EIAS?”

On Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at a General Assembly Meeting in Bori, Ogoniland which was addressed by the Council of Ogoni Traditional Rulers Association, COTRA, which is an affiliate of MOSOP, the Vice Chairman, Chief Letam Teenwi explained that after three days of study of the UNEP report, COTRA resolved to uphold the MOSOP Statement earlier signed by MOSOP President /Spokesman, Dr. Goodluck Diigbo calling for urgent review.

Teenwi called for international support to avert tragedy alluded to by the report, adding that a review would provide a unique opportunity to discuss the full spectrum of international law relating to indigenous peoples rights as they affect the report, including environmental, economic, political and social rights.

The native rulers briefing was attended by representatives of all Federation of Ogoni Women Association, National Youth Council of Ogoni People, Ogoni Teachers Union, Council of Ogoni Churches, Farmers Association of Ogoni, Ogoni Technical Association, National Union of Ogoni Students, Ogoni Students Union (drawn from primary and secondary schools), Council of Ogoni Professionals and others.

Signed by:

Dum Ade John Budam
MOSOP Secretary-General

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By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, August 12, 8:25 PM

LAGOS — Shell’s managing director in Nigeria on Monday pledged the oil giant would take “seriously” a UN study on unprecedented pollution, but reiterated that the company was not to blame for most spills.

“It’s important for me to emphasise that we are taking the UNEP report very seriously,” Mutiu Sunmonu told AFP in an interview after the UN Environment Programme released the report last week.

“We are looking at it in greater detail. We are taking a comb through the report to see exactly what necessary follow-up actions will be required of SPDC.”

SPDC is Shell’s Nigerian joint venture, the Shell Petroleum Development Company.

The landmark report set out scientific evidence for the first time of devastating pollution in Ogoniland, part of the country’s main oil-producing Niger Delta region where Shell and the state petroleum company have operated.

It said the pollution may require the world’s biggest ever clean-up, while detailing urgent health risks, especially badly contaminated drinking water.

Shell faced criticism from UNEP, which said “control and maintenance of oil field 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.”

The company has long blamed most of the environmental damage in the Niger Delta on oil theft, illegal refining and other criminal activities, an assertion that activists strongly dispute.

“Over 70 percent of the spills in the delta is caused by sabotage,” Sunmonu said.

“But even the remaining 30 percent is still of great concern to me because every oil we spill is bad. It’s bad for the people, it’s bad for the environment and it’s also bad for the business.”

He said “my focus on the UNEP report is to work with all stakeholders to make sure we can restore the environment in Ogoniland to its natural state as quickly as possible.”

Anglo-Dutch Shell was forced to pull out of Ogoniland amid unrest in 1993, though pipelines for its Nigerian joint venture, which includes the state oil company, and other facilities remain there.

“All the assets we had in Ogoniland have been either vandalised or really at the mercy of saboteurs,” said Sunmonu.

“The only two assets that are active in Ogoniland are our two pipelines, and I am very confident about the integrity of those two pipelines.”

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved.

7 August 2011

n the first case of its kind, a British high court sitting in London has ordered oil major, Royal Dutch Shell to pay compensation of potentially more than £250m ($410m) to the Bodo community of Rivers State, after the Anglo-Dutch oil group admitted liability for two spills around the community, following a class-action lawsuit brought in England by the Niger Delta community.

By  Chuks Okocha  and Omon-Julius Onabu

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria has absolved itself of any wrongdoing in respect of the widely reported 2008 oil spills in Ogoni communities in the Niger-Delta.

Apparently reacting to the recent report by the United Nations Environmental Programme on the pollution of Ogoniland, which indicted Shell, SPDC Managing Director, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, said “oil spills in the Niger-Delta are a tragedy,” adding, also, that the company “takes them very seriously”.

He said SPDC had always accepted responsibility for paying compensation when they occur as a result of operational failure.
Sunmonu, however, blamed the media for sensationalizing reports on oil pollution and also faulted the financial claims being speculated by lawyers to the Ogoni communities as possible compensation to be coughed out by Shell.

Also, the President/Spokesman of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni Peoples, Dr. Goodluck Digbo, said Friday that the people of Ogoni have rejected the UNEP report on the environmental pollution in the area. He challenged the integrity of the report.

In the report which emerged on Thursday, UNEP painted a gloomy picture of the level of environmental degradation in Nigeria’s oil-rich region, particularly Ogoniland, saying it might require 30 years to clean up the mess.

The study also said complete restoration could entail the world’s “most wide-ranging and long-term oil clean-up and it is estimated to cost $1 billion.

According to him, “The two spills at issue here resulted in around 4,000 barrels of oil being spilt. It is regrettable that any oil is spilt anywhere, but it is wildly inaccurate to suggest that those two spills represent anything like the scale which some reports refer to.”

He accused the media of closing its eyes to the fact that rampant acts of sabotage and vandalism by people involved in illegal bunkering or stealing petroleum products were responsible for most of the cases of oil spills in Nigeria.

Sunmonu’s remarks are contained in a written reaction, made available to THISDAY in Warri, titled “An open letter on oil spills from the Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited,” and dated August 4, 2011.

He said SPDC had acted in its usually responsive and responsible manner even though the contentious spills in Bodo (in Ogoniland) was a relatively small scale, and nothing near the picture of seemingly massive spills now being painted.

Text of Sunmonu’s letter read: “Oil spills in the Niger-Delta are a tragedy, and The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) takes them very seriously. That is why we have always accepted responsibility for paying compensation when they occur as a result of operational failure.

“SPDC has always acknowledged that the two spills in the Bodo area (Ogoni-land) in 2008, which are the focus of extensive media reports today, were caused by such operational failure. Even when, as is true in the great majority of cases, spills are caused by illegal activity such as sabotage or theft, we are also committed to cleaning up spilt oil and restoring the surrounding land.

“It is regrettable that any oil is spilt anywhere, but it is wildly inaccurate to suggest that those two spills represent anything like the scale which some reports refer to.

“It is unfortunate that inaccurate reporting has created the impression that SPDC in particular and oil companies in general are responsible for all oil spills in Nigeria. The two spills at issue here resulted in around 4,000 barrels of oil being spilt. It is regrettable that any oil is spilt anywhere, but it is wildly inaccurate to suggest that those two spills represent anything like the scale which some reports refer to. Equally, speculation by the plaintiffs’ lawyers as to the level of compensation, which may be payable is misguided and massively in excess of the true position.

“Concerted effort is needed on the part of the Nigerian government (which itself owns a majority interest in the assets operated by SPDC under a joint operating agreement with the NNPC), working with oil companies and others, to end the blight of illegal refining and oil theft in the Niger Delta, both of which perpetuate poverty. This is the major cause of the environmental damage which media reports have so graphically illustrated.”

MOSOP president recalled an earlier confession by UNEP team leader Mike Cowing that the report had been informed by data and information solely supplied by Shell and the government, without actual study on the ground.

According to Diigbo in a statement, “The purported UNEP meeting with 23,000 Ogonis is only on paper. There is no evidence to prove who attended, what review was done, agreements reached, if any and Ogonis who signed such agreements as proof of public participation as part of the Environmental Impact Assessment Study, EIAS due process”.

He said: “UNEP report is a high profile media game. It began a day earlier with a news flash of Shell admitting responsibility for oil spillage in Bodo, Ogoniland. Then a report appeared, exactly in line with several other failed promises by Shell, stating one billion dollars to be spent for oil damages of 55 years, accompanied by an air view of a wealthy looking city at seaside that has nothing to do with Ogoniland.

“This is absolutely a regrettable act of disinformation and cover-up. Who determined that restoration of Ogoniland would last for 30 years? What is the extent or estimate of overall damage? Everything is dictated to us, the Ogoni people who have lost our means of livelihood, subjected economic burden and poverty. In Nov. 2010 the Ogoni worried that UNEP report was secretly being done and they immediately protested.

“In arriving at this position, MOSOP takes into account continued effort by Shell to deceive and silence the Ogoni people as with the hanging of the Ogoni Nine, the corruption with which Shell cooperating with the government has treated environmental violation with impunity in Ogoniland, and the insensitivity of the Nigerian Government in handling specific Ogoni demands. The unilateral report may sound wonderfully pleasant because of the rich scientific literature, but MOSOP has records of conflicting statements by UNEP team leader Mike Cowing that contradict the genuineness of the report. This further reminds MOSOP of the previously publicized report of attempts by UNEP team under Mike Cowing to bribe Ogonis to sign on to an already written report even without a single visit to Ogoniland”.

SOURCE ARTICLE

Friday 5 August 2011

Shell’s admission of responsibility for two major oil spills in the Niger Delta region has provoked reactions ranging from jubilation to cynicism. The Bodo fishing community had taken the Anglo-Dutch oil giant to court in the UK, claiming oil pollution has left the environment, and their livelihood, in ruins.

By Emmanuel Mayah, Lagos

Previously Shell has always maintained that oil spills in the Niger Delta were largely caused by sabotage by crude oil thieves and pipeline vandals. However the company finally admitted that two devastating spills in 2008 and 2009 were a result of equipment failure.

This marks a turning point in the chequered relationship between oil companies and their host communities in Nigeria – and opens the way to a huge compensation settlement expected to be around 280 million euros.

A new era
Metu Sossa belongs to the Beeri communities in the Khana area of Ogoni in the Niger delta. He said the compensation means the dawn of a new era in Ogoniland. Utterly amazed by Shell’s admission, 47-year-old man Sossa says: “I never believed that I would live to see this day. Ogoni is synonymous with bad news, one of which was the killing of Ken Saro-Wiwa, but now we are going to have a good story to tell our children.”

“That Shell has finally succumbed to reason just goes to show that our struggles are not in vain. It is a welcome development. The money should be used to restore the polluted rivers and other ecosystems,” Sossa says.

Unaware
The Bodo community, about 70,000 people, have seen an entire 2,000 hectares of creeks and mangroves ravaged by oil pollution. Martin Oborokiri, a schoolteacher living in the Niger Delta’s Torugbene area, believes the people of Bodo and other possible beneficiaries may be unaware of the compensation they can now expect. And may never actually receive it.

“You must remember that many of the affected communities of fishermen and farmers do not have access to newspapers,” says Oborokiri. “Some have radios but many have never seen a television set. As a result news takes days, sometimes weeks, to travel from one part of the Niger Delta to another. Do not be surprised if this compensation does not get to the people who are entitled it.”

Still no win
Another Niger Delta native, Apah Keenam of the Sogho community, says the news will spread across the Delta region. But he believes it is a no-win situation for the entire Ogoni population. “What we need is not just payments from Shell but restitution from the Nigerian government,” syas Keenam. “If you say Shell has changed for the better, would you say the same of the Nigerian government?”

He continues: “Our lands are polluted. And, as if our problems are not big enough, the little land left for subsistence farming the government wants to forcibly take away from us by attempting to relocate the Bori Camp Military Barracks – which houses the 2nd Amphibious Brigade – from Port Harcourt to Ogoni. Is a military barrack the social amenity Ogoni need?”

Doubts
Vivian Balari, an environmental journalist and Ogoni native, is in no way consoled by the news from the UK. She has not forgotten that in 2009, when Shell paid 11 million euros to the families of Ken Saro-Wiwa and nine other slain activists, about 5.7 million went to the lawyers and another large sum was put in trust.

Balari: “Some NGOs involved in the lawsuit probably took care of themselves leaving just a pittance to the victims’ dependents. You see why this new compensation may not be good news after all.”

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