Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government has disclosed that so far, 16,200 barrels of crude oil and water sediments have been recovered from the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
This was disclosed ahead of investigations which are set to return today, to further understand the cause of the spill which commenced on November 5.
The Minister of State for Environment, Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, while speaking on Tuesday after visiting the leak site at the oilfield operated by an indigenous oil firm, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Exploration Company, said efforts would be made to uncover the cause of the unfortunate incident.
The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had on November 6 visited the leak site to ascertain the cause of the leak from a non-producing well.
The pressure and intensity of the gas and crude leak reportedly hampered the process.
The agency subsequently directed the operator of the oilfield to shut the leak, but it persisted until December 8 when the leak was plugged.
Mrs Ikeazor gave the assurance that the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) would be conducted in a transparent manner, noting that the federal government ensured prompt response from the first day of the incident.
The JIV is a statutory probe that follows every reported leak incident.
“It is done by representatives of the oil firm, affected communities, regulators and state ministry of environment to ascertain the cause and estimated volume of spilt crude oil,” she said.
Mrs Ikeazor noted that NOSDRA had been on the incident site to ensure that the oil leak was contained within the locality to avert further damage to the environment.
According to her, the response to the incident reduced the impact on the environment, adding that the JIV report would determine the next course of action.
According to her, if the leak is traced to equipment failure, the victims will be compensated but if it is found to be caused by sabotage, there will be no compensation.
On his part, Mr Idris Musa, Director-General of NOSDRA, who accompanied the minister alongside officials of Aiteo, said that the agency was doing its best to mitigate the resultant pollution.
He said that the site had suffered several pollution incidents, adding that the devastation observed was not only caused by the latest incident.
He said that the calm nature of the Santa Barbra River was responsible for the high recovery rate of spilt crude which was largely trapped by booms deployed to reduce the spread of leaked crude.
Aiteo had in 2015 acquired OML 29 for about $2.4 billion following Shell’s divestment.
The asset consists of the 97km Nembe Creek Trunk Line which evacuates crude from onshore oil wells within the oil bloc and other operators to Bonny Export Terminal.
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