Mrs Sharon Ikeazor, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Environment says not less than 16,200 barrels of Bonny light crude stream have been recovered from Aiteo’s oil leak site in Nembe, Bayelsa State.
Ikeazor was speaking on Tuesday shortly after visiting the leak site at the oilfield operated by the indigenous oil firm, Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Exploration Company.
National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) on November 6 visited the leak site to ascertain the cause of the leak from a non-producing well bet the pressure and intensity of the gas and crude leak hampered the process.
The spills regulatory agency subsequently directors the operator of the oilfield to shut in the leak, but it persisted until December 8 when the leak was plugged.
The minister assures that the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) will be conducted in a transparent manner adding that the Federal Government ensured prompt response from day one of the incident.
JIV is a statutory probe that follows every reported leak incident by representatives of oil firm, impacted communities, regulators and the State Ministry of Environment to ascertain the cause and estimated volume of spilled crude oil.
She noted that NOSDRA had been on the incident site to ensure that the oil leak was contained within the locality to avert further damage to the environment.
The minister said that from her impressions after the visit that the response to the incident reduced the impact of the environment adding that the JIV report will determine the next course of action.
According to her, if the leak was traced to equipment failure, the victims would be compensated but if it is found to be caused by sabotage, there would be no compensation.
Director-General of NOSDRA, Idris Musa, who accompanied the minister alongside officials of Aiteo noted that the agency was doing its best to mitigate the resultant pollution.
He noted that the site had suffered several pollution incidents in the past and noted that the devastation observed was not only caused by the latest incident.
He attributed that calm nature of the Santa Barbra River as being responsible for the high recovery rate of spilled crude which was largely trapped by booms deployed to reduce the spread of leaked crude.
Investigations into the cause of the November 5 spill at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 in Nembe Local Government Area, Bayelsa will resume on Wednesday.
Aiteo in 2015 acquired OML 29 following Shell’s divestment for about $2.4 billion.
The asset consists the 97km Nembe Creek Trunk Line which evacuates crude from onshore oil wells within the oil bloc and other operators to Bonny Export Terminal.
