Oil spillage occurs in Shell’s pipeline in Bayelsa, 1.34 hectares of land polluted

An oil pipeline spillage has occurred at the Okordia-Rumekpe 14-inch crude truckline, operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), discharging about 213 barrels of crude oil into Ikarama community in Bayelsa State.

This is as the report indicates that about 1.34 hectares of land were polluted by the spillage which followed a rupture on the pipeline.

According to a report from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the spillage was confirmed by the Media Relations Manager for SPDC, Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, who said that the probe into the incident had been concluded.

A Joint Investigative Visit (JIV) report on the incident on Thursday confirmed that the incident took place on April 7, while the investigation was concluded on April 12. JIV is a statutory probe into the cause of any recorded spill incident involving the oil firm, regulators, host communities and state ministries of environment.

The JIV report concluded that the spill was an operational mishap traced to equipment failure which impacted nearby palm trees and fish ponds and subsequently recommended remediation of the site.

The JIV report also states that out of the 213 barrels of SPDC’s bonny light crude stream leak, some 110 barrels are recoverable from the ongoing recovery exercise at the site, leaving an estimated spilled volume at 109.12 barrels.

The JIV report, which anticipated that oil recovery would be concluded before the end of April, also recommended the replacement of sections of the pipeline to restore its integrity.

What you should know

This new leakage is the latest in a series of oil spillages by Shell which has put the multinational oil firm in conflict with the host communities.

A report has suggested that Shell has reported over 1,000 spills with about 110,535 barrels of crude or 17.5 million litres lost since 2011, although some experts and stakeholders believe that the figure could be more in reality.

It can be recalled that a Dutch appeals court ruled that the Nigerian branch of oil giant Shell is responsible for damage caused by leaks in the Niger Delta and therefore ordered Shell Nigeria to pay compensation to Nigerian farmers, while the subsidiary and its Anglo-Dutch parent company were told to install equipment to prevent future damage.