Group alleges more oil spill along coastline
THERE are indications that the Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo) will soon restore production from the Bonga oil platform offshore Nigeria, which was shut down last week to control an oil spillage.
The Shell Nigeria's Country Chair, Mutiu Sumonu, told The Guardian that the company had set up a team to consider the resumption of production soon.
"We have set up a team to start looking at production resumption. I'm hoping that it will not take too long, but until this has come to me with a clear plan, I cannot say, but because we know that the source of the leak has been identified, we have been able to isolate it. I'm hoping that production resumption is not going to be in the distant feature," he said.
Sumonu said apart from the experts and technologies so far deployed by the company, more international experts would come into the country for further technical expertise.
The cleaning process has taken another dimension, following the discovery of a fresh oil spill, attributed to third party operations, in the coastline Niger Delta.
An aerial survey by journalists revealed that the fresh oil spill which was very close to the shore (hundreds of miles away from Bonga), was far massive than the level of the Bonga spill.
Besides, The Guardian investigations revealed that the colour of the Bonga spill was different from the fresh spill, as it was darker than that of Bonga spill.
Sumonu said he felt bad about the fresh spill, and confirmed that it was from a third party operator, which has not been clearly identified. But he said that a sample of the spill had been taken while investigations continued.
He said: "That was very unfortunate. When I sighted it myself, my initial reaction was anger, but I told myself, you just cannot afford to be angry, just deal with it as a good corporate citizen. So I have to give clear instructions that all the facilities we had mobilised to deal with our own spill should also be utilised to deal with it, and that is what happened. A lot of what was done today was really on that third party spill."
Sumonu assured that the dispersant was not harsh, and therefore it was environment-friendly. "In terms of toxicity, it is about five times less toxic than oil itself, it is specially designed for marine," he said.
Meanwhile, a non-governmental organisation, Environmental Rights Action, which closely monitors oil spills in the country, said yesterday that an oil spill was reported along the shoreline of fishing communities in Bayelsa State as well as Delta State.
The group said it sent out monitors after reports from fishermen, adding that it suspected the oil had come from the Shell spill, but the claim could not be independently verified.
According to the group's head, Nnimmo Bassey, "In the course of the visit, spreading slick was sighted close to the coastline of Odioama and along St. Nicholas. The footprint comes from the ocean."
But Shell's spokesman, Precious Okolobo said :"If there was any more spill found on the coastline, it must have come from a third party.
"We found a third-party spill and we have told our team on the ground to clean it. If there is still a spill on the shoreline, it is a third-party spill," Okolobo said.
Shell has confirmed that the oil leak from the Bonga facility has largely dispersed. The news came six days after less than 40,000 barrels of oil leaked during a routine operation to transfer oil from Bonga's floating storage to an oil tanker.
The Guardian