Contending with incessant oil spills in Bayelsa

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.