Oscarline Onwuemenyi & Kunle Kalejaye
07 November 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA—INTRIGUES and disagreements, Tuesday, characterised the third plenary of the ongoing 15th International Health Safety and Environment, HSE Biennial Conference in Abuja, as regulatory agencies disagreed over environmental regulatory enforcement.
The agencies, the Ministry of the Environment; Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR; National Oil Spill Detection Response Agency, NOSDRA; and the Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, disagreed over whose responsibility it was to enforce environmental laws in the oil and gas industry.
The Director General of NOSDRA, Mr. Peter Idabor, claimed that the overlap of enforcing environmental law in the industry was between the Ministry of Environment and DPR, adding that his agency was not involved in the overlap function.
Stressing the need to tackle environmental pollution resulting from oil spill in the best interest of the country, Idabor argued, “If DPR cooperates effectively with us, NOSDRA, there will not be any problem. We are not competing with anybody but to achieve good environment for our national interest.”
He maintained that NOSDRA was established to manage oil spill contingency plan and to enforce them to the letter.