*532 barrels spilled
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — A total of 10 oil spill incidents was recorded by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, in the month of January 2020, as a result of oil theft.
Data obtained from Shell website shows that between January 2nd and January 28th 2020, the Dutch multinational experienced leaks in Delta, Abia, Rivers and Bayelsa States amounting to 532barrels of crude oil.
The affected facilities in these four states include; 20” Trans-Escravos Pipeline, 12″ Imo River1-Ogale Pipeline, 12″ Imo River-Ebubu Pipeline, 20″ Kolo Creek-Rumuekpe Pipeline, 4” Kanbo 3L Flowline, and 8″ Obigbo North-New Elelenwa Pipeline.
While, facilities like the 12″ Imo River1-Ogale Pipeline experienced two leaks at two different locations, within the month of January, the 20″ Kolo Creek-Rumuekpe Pipeline experienced three leaks at three different theft points within Emuoha and Abua/Odual LGA of Rivers State.
Eight of the leaks were recorded on land, while two occurred in the swamp area; the volume of each spill ranges from 0.3barrel to 247 barrels in each of the spill site.
Information from the JIV reports, endorsed by the Department of Petroleum Resources,DPR, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, Host communities and State Ministry of Environment in the impacted states and SPDC, showed that all the 10 leaks were caused by sabotage and third party interference.
While no recoverable oil was found in some of the spill sites, recovery and assessment are yet to be completed in most sites, as some would take till March 2020.