Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC spilled over 63 barrels of crude oil in the Niger Delta, as a result of equipment failure, in the first half of 2020 alone.
The Dutch oil firm experienced operational failure on three occasions in the month of March 2020 alone, while two cases of equipment failure was recorded in May 2020, making it a total of five incidents, in the first half of the year.
However, the oil multinational also recorded 68 spill incidents from oil theft, sabotage, vandalism and third party interference on its facilities, within the period under review.
Data obtained from company’s website shows that between January and June 2020, the Dutch firm experienced leaks in Delta, Abia, Rivers, Imo and Bayelsa States amounting to over 6,165.58 barrels of crude oil.
The affected facilities in the period under review are,14″ Okordia-Rumuekpe Pipeline, 10″ Diebu Creek-NunRiver Pipeline, 12″ Adibawa-Okordia Pipeline, 18″ Assa-Rumuekpe Pipeline, 28” Bomu-Bonny Pipeline, 12″ Oguta-Egbema Pipeline, 20″ Rumuekpe-Nkpoku Pipeline, 20” Kolocreek-Rumuekpe Pipeline and Imo River Well 26 Flowline.
Others are, 28″ Nkpoku-Bomu Pipeline, 20″ Kolocreek-Rumuekpe Pipeline, 12″ Imo River-Ogale Pipeline, 36″ Nkpoku-Ogale Pipeline, 8″ Nkali-Imo River Pipeline, and 4″ Imo River2-Imo River1 Bulkline, 16″ Egbema-Assa Pipeline, 4″ Kanbo Well 5L Flowline, Adibawa Well 6T Flowline Flange, 4″ Bonny Well 10S Flowline Riser and 20″ Trans-Escravos Pipeline,
While, facilities like the 12″ Imo River1-Ogale Pipeline experienced two leaks at two different locations within the period under review, the 20″ Kolo Creek-Rumuekpe Pipeline, the 14” Okordia-Rumuekpe pipeline and the 28” Nkpoku-Bomu pipeline were sabotaged almost weekly at different theft points in Emuoha, Abua/Odual and Gokana LGAs of Rivers State.
63 of the leaks were recorded on land asset, while 10 occurred in a swampy terrain; the volume of each spill ranges from 0.03barrel to 655 barrels in each of the spill site.
Information from JIV reports, endorsed by the Department of Petroleum Resources, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, host communities, Ministry of Environment in the impacted states and SPDC, showed that five of these leaks were caused by operational failure, while 68 were caused by sabotage.
While no recoverable oil was found in some of the spill sites, repair work have been completed in some sites; repair work and crude recovery are still ongoing in other sites, while assessment would be completed in some of the sites this year.
