A fresh oil spill has occurred on a pipeline said to belong to the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) Ltd in Rivers State.
It was learnt that the spill occurred on Friday, January 19, 2024, on the Obolo-Ogale, (close to Ebubu Community) Shell’s pipeline right of way.
This is coming three days after Shell agreed to sell off its onshore facilities in Nigeria to Renaissance for over $1.3 billion.
The latest spill occurred less than 20 days after a crude oil spill incident was recorded in K-Dere Community in Gokana local council of the state.
The lasted spill occurred while the locals and affected communities were still trying to come to terms with the impacts of the earlier spills, as investigations and remediation were yet to be carried out.
The Guardian recalls that multiple crude oil spills has been going on in Ogoni communities since last year with no proper remediation of the environment, indicating that more pollution, causing huge damage to the people’s sources of livelihood, is still taking place.
Confirming the Spill to journalists yesterday in Port Harcourt, the Executive Director of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC-Nigeria), Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said the Centre’s Youth Volunteers Network, under the auspices of its Crude Oil Spill Alert System (COSAS) witnessed the spill last Friday night.
Dumnamene said the community members who witnessed the incident said Shell shut down the pipeline in December 2023 to carry out some maintenance works, noting that it’s possible their excavators punctured some pipes unknowingly.
“Believing that the maintenance work has been completed successfully, Shell, on Friday, January 19, three days after it announced the agreed sale of its onshore facilities in Nigeria to Renaissance for over $1.3 billion, commenced the transportation of crude oil through the pipeline, leading to leakage and massive crude oil spill into the environment.
“From photographs sent to YEAC-Nigeria showing the spill point and heap of sand, the evacuated points were yet to be covered, and crude oil was noticed oozing and pumping out of the pipeline under the ground uncontrollably till the time of this report as also seen in the videos shared,” he said.
Dunamene called on the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to immediately carry out a joint investigation visit (JIV) to the site, determine the cause of the spillage and invoke relevant sections of the Petroleum Industry Action (2021) to ensure that the community and its people are paid adequate compensation and the spill is cleaned up with a view to restoring the environment before the exit of SPDC.
