Contending with incessant
oil spills in Bayelsa
The negative effects of oil spills on the environment are
well known and has been with oil communities since the discovery of oil in
commercial quantities in Oloibiri , Bayelsa.
Bayelsa which hosts the first oil well drilled by Shell
Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) also hosts the operations of Nigeria Agip
Oil Company, (NAOC), Chevron Nigeria Limited in both onshore and offshore
locations.
Stakeholders agree that oil spills are an integral part
of oil exploration and production while it is imperative to keep the spills
within acceptable limits.
Peter Idabor, Director General, National Oil Spills
Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) said in April during a visit to oil
spill sites in Bayelsa that the state is the worst hit in frequency and extent
of oil spills in the Niger Delta.
According to Idabor, Bayelsa records an average of 40 oil
spill incidents every month, an indication that the rate of oil spill in Bayelsa
is more devastating than that of the widely reported Ogoni land in Rivers
State.
Moved by the magnitude of pollution left behind by
decades of oil exploration and production activities, Gov Seriake Dickson
during the visit of the spill agency to spill polluted sites called for stiffer
laws to protect the environment.
He mooted an environment summit to discuss ways of
mitigating the effects of oil and gas exploration and exploitation on the
environment of Bayelsa and indeed the Niger Delta region.
Dickson observed that the adverse health implications
arising from environmental pollution required scientific studies to quantify
the magnitude of the problems facing the people.
“What has been going on in Bayelsa , the Niger Delta
concerning the levity with which oil companies treat the issues of the
environment and the maintenance of environmental and health standards.
“When you look at all of these and particularly spill
statistics, which I believe is only a tip of the iceberg, one is really left
with no other conclusion than that, we are actually facing a case of
environmental terrorism.
“What has been going on in the Niger Delta since the
discovery of oil; a situation where more than one spill takes place in Bayelsa
every day, going by what NOSDRA’s statistics is telling us and all these sites
are treated with reckless abandon.
“The environment
is left to fend for itself, the livelihood and in fact the lives of the people
and the ecosystem are not attended to. What then is more of terrorist action
than this?,” Dickson asked.
However, Jame Ekio, an oil services expert faulted the
scenario created by the governor, he said that heaping the blames on the
doorsteps of the oil companies is unfair.
“The three tiers of government are the greatest beneficiaries
of oil revenues, remember the government holds majority stake of 60 percent
while the oil companies own 40 per cent or less. The oil producing states get a
derivation fund of 13 per cent of the volume of oil produced from its
territory.
“What stops them from using part of the proceeds from oil
to remediate and protect the areas, rather than use oil funds to develop the
oil communities, they channel such funds into fancy projects restricted to the
state capitals to the detriment of the oil bearing areas,” he said.
From the perspective of operators, spills are caused
mostly by sabotage by third party interference with the intent of stealing
crude.
Stolen crude is sold and exported illegally or refined
locally for local use and both activities degrade the ecosystem.
For Roland Kiente, a local refinery operator in Southern
Ijaw Local Government, local refining should be formalized to enforce standards
in an environmentally friendly manner.
“Legalising local refining will ensure that crude is sold
to us officially and this will end revenue loss to government and make refined
products available to oil communities most of who lack access to distribution
channels for refined petroleum products,” he said.
Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) one the dominant
operators in Bayelsa absolves itself of the blames and said that more than 80
per cent of spill incidents within its operations were traceable to sabotage by
third parties.
Mr Joseph Obari, SPDC’s spokesman
says that the Okordia-Ikarama area in Bayelsa is a hotbed of pipeline sabotage
activities.
Obari regretted that even
the few reported cases of spills caused by equipment failure were remotely
linked to sabotage as such spots were often compromised previously by vandals.
According to him, the oil
firm was committed to prompt clean up and remediation of spill impacted sites
within its operations irrespective of the cause of the spill.
“The perpetrators’ personal
gains are the driving force of the illegal activities. A total of 21 spills
have been recorded in the area between 2009 and now.
“Of the number, 17 were due
to deliberate cutting of SPDC pipelines and manifold. The four spills caused by
equipment failure occurred at previously clamped sabotage points, already
weakened by repeated cuts.
“SPDC Oil Spill Response and
Remediation team is presently cleaning up the site of a spill that occurred in
January 2014 and remediation of the 2013 spill sites that could not be
remediated because of last year’s flood in the area,” Obari stated.
Ikarama, an oil rich
community in with Yenagoa Local Government Area also hosts oil fields operated
by Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC).
Lamenting on the plight of the community, Chief Daniel
Francos, Paramount Ruler of Ikaraman said that the community lacked basic
amenities and had nothing to show for the oil deposits in the area except a
polluted environment caused by oil production activities.
The monarch regretted that efforts to combat the frequent
spills in the community were yielding limited results as the oil firms worked
at cross purposes.
The incessant spills from Agip’s oil fields in Bayelsa
compelled the House of Representatives in April 2014 to order a probe into the
operations of the Italian oil firm in the state.
The House of Reps Committee on Environment, led by Hon.
Uche Ekwunife is expected to commence investigations into the spills which
reportedly sacked residents from their homes in Ikarama any moment from now.
Whilst oil communities see spills as damage to the
environment and an opportunity to agitate for compensation, applicable
legislation absolves operators from paying compensation when the cause is
sabotage or third party interference.
Often the quest for spill compensation pitches the
communities against officials of oil firms during the Joint Investigative
Visits, (JIV), a statutory assessment to determine the cause of spills.
These conflicts often delay and frustrate clean up
efforts and further hurts the environment.
Mr Ambrose Osuolo, Assistant Secretary of JK4 Edagberi/ Better land community said that
most JIV’s end in a stalemate when the company holds a divergent view from that
of the community.
“I have had to withhold signing the JIV reports when I
represent my people on such visits when the cause of the spill becomes contentious,
it makes the report inconclusive,” Osuolo said.
Mr Alagoa Morris, an environmentalist has recommended a
holistic approach to resolve the recurring conflict between the oil firm and
Bayelsa communities to safeguard the environment.
Morris has urged the House of Representatives Committee
on Environment to hold an all inclusive investigation involving the government,
oil firms, environmentalists, oil communities and media to find an enduring
solution to frequent spills in Bayelsa and end the blame game.
