… Records 10 spill incidents
Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — A total of 10 oil spill incidents was recorded by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, in February 2020, as a result of oil theft.
Data obtained from Shell’s website showed that between February 6 and 28, it experienced leaks in Abia and Rivers States, amounting to 2,278 barrels of crude oil.
The affected facilities in the two states included the 12″ Imo River2-Ebubu Pipeline, 14″ Okordia-Rumuekpe Pipeline, 28″ Bomu-Bonny Pipeline, 12″ Imo River1-Ogale Pipeline, 24″ Ogale-Bomu Trans Niger Pipeline, 36″ Nkpoku-Bomu Pipeline and 4″ Imo River Well 43T Flowline.
All the affected facilities had one leak each, except the 14″ Okordia-Rumuekpe Pipeline, which experienced four leaks at four different theft points in Ahoada-West LGA of Rivers State in the month under review.
Nine of the leaks were recorded on land, while only one occurred in the swamp area; the volume of each spill ranging from 0.7 barrel to 904 barrels in each of the spill sites.
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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 were yet to be completed in most sites, as some would take till April and May 2020.
