Shell regrets delays in clean up of spill at its Adibawa Oil fields

From: Arodiegwu Eziokwu, Yenogoa

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) says the delays experienced in the oil spill response at its Adibawa oil fields were regrettable.

OIL SPILL IMPACTED VEGETATION WILTED BESIDE KOLO CREEK MANIFOLD OPERATED BY SHELL SHELL PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT COMPANY IN OGBIA LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN BAYELSA., WHILE OIL WORKERS (IN FRONT) RECOVER SPILT CRUDE INTO PLASTIC TANK.26-4-2015

SPDC said on Monday that the oil leakage from its oil fields located in Edagberi community in Rivers was caused by thieves who targeted the Well Head.

A statement from Mr Joseph Obari, an SPDC spokesman regretted the delay to an investigation of a leak at Adibawa- well-8 in the Eastern Niger Delta, where a suspected attempt to steal the wellhead led to a spill.

The oil firm also alleged that members of its host community were thwarting the efforts of the oil firm to contain the leakage and remediate the polluted environment.

“SPDC received reports of the incident on July 12 and took containment measures including the construction of dykes, pits and the deployment of booms to prevent further impact on the environment.

“The leak was stopped on July 15, but attempts to conduct the statutory Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) on July 16 and 17 to determine the cause and extent of the leak have been unsuccessful.

“ The leadership of the Edagbiri Betterland community prevented the representatives of industry regulatory agencies, the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and SPDC from accessing the site for containment and crude oil recovery operations.

“Without the JIV, SPDC cannot carry out badly-needed repairs or proceed to clean up and remediate the site” SPDC stated

SPDC said it is concerned that, leaving the contained crude in the environment, creates avoidable danger of fire and seepage further into the ground.

The statement quoted Mr  Igo Weli. SPDC’s General Manager, External Relations as saying timely access to the spill site was fundamental to an effective spill response.

“The quicker we can recover the exposed crude oil, the safer for the community and all other stakeholders,” Weli said

However Chief Sunny Jacob Ubele, Paramount ruler of Edagberi community said that the allegations that the community denied SPDC access were false.

He said that the community cooperated with officials of the oil firm but expressed reservations when Shell officials attempted to manipulate the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) procedure.

“ It is very untrue that we denied them access, if we did how did they manage to stop the spill?, they had fixed a JIV on our meeting day and we told them to fix it for the next day.

“ When we go there with them we found out they went to the site unilaterally and tampered with the evidences that would assist in arriving at conclusions, so we told them that we were excluded from that exercise.

“We pointed out to them that what they did constituted a JIV without community and we declined to sign the JIV reports because we were not part of it and the JIV was inconclusive.

“There is not truth in the allegations, today the council of chief met and restated that they should commence recovery of crude from the site, ” Ubele said.