Sam Ikeotuonye
Lagos — Multinational oil company Shell says the number of major oil spills from its operations in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta dropped from 122 incidents in 2021 to 106 last year.
The company disclosed this in its recently released sustainability report, stating that whereas the number of major oil spills dropped the volume of crude oil spills caused by sabotage more than doubled during the year. It rose to 3,300 tonnes, a level last seen in 2016, the company added.
Shell stated in the report that in 2020, oil spills in Nigeria stood at 1,500 tonnes.
The company has its Nigerian subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, operating major onshore oil and gas as assets under a joint venture with the national oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
SPDC has struggled for years to contain spills in the Delta caused by operational incidents, theft and sabotage.
The company has been in the thick of plans to divest some of the onshore assets.
A court in Nigeria last month stopped Shell from selling any assets in the country until a decision is reached on the company’s appeal of a nearly $2 billion penalty for an alleged oil spill.
In another development, the Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, named Shell as a “leading tax compliant organisation in Nigeria for 2021.”
At an award ceremony in Abuja as part of the second annual National Tax Dialogue, Shell companies in Nigeria also won the award for “remarkable performance in the remittance of various taxes” in the same year.
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC; Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited, SNEPCo; and Shell Nigeria Gas paid a combined $6 billion in direct taxes between 2015 and 2020 to the government.
The Executive Chairman of the FIRS, Mr. Muhammad Mamman Nami, noted that Shell companies demonstrated commitment to paying all government taxes, hence the two awards.
Managing Director, SPDC and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, said he was happy that government partners and stakeholders recognised Shell’s significant contributions to the revenue of Nigeria by which the government is able to grow the economy and bring about development to every part of the country.
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