By Nelson Utip
Shell Petroleum Development Company SPDC has pointed accusing fingers at thieves as responsible for oil spill from its facility in the Imiringi community in Bayelsa, after a
Joint Investigative Visit (JIV) into the July 27 oil spill.
The JIV a statutory probe follows every oil spillage reported by regulators, operators, and community representatives to ascertain the cause, volume of the spill, and impacted area was recently carried out by the oil giant.
The spokesman for SPDC, Bamidele Odugbesan made this known in a statement on Wednesday in Yenagoa, he said that three barrels of SPDC’s Bonny light crude blend had spilt into the environment.
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Members of the Imiringi community had accused Shell of polluting farmlands and water bodies in the area but SPDC said the entire three barrels had been recovered, leaving a residue.
“SPDC, operator of the SPDC JV, acknowledges the occurrence of an oil spill from its Kolo Creek Well 22T flowline facility at Imiringi on July 27.
“The report of the joint investigation of the incident led by the government regulator, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), found that the incident was caused by illegal third-party activity.
“Meanwhile, cleanup, remediation and repair of the breached pipeline are ongoing.” The SPDC Spokesman said.
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The JIV exercise ended on July 30, and all parties came to agreement on the cause while repairs on the breached pipeline are ongoing.
The JIV team comprised NOSDRA and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Bayelsa Ministry of Environment, representatives of the affected communities and SPDC according to the spokesman.
Environmental advocacy group, Environmental Defenders Network EDN called for the immediate cleanup of the spill site to avoid it spreading to other communities in the area
Mr Morris, The Director of EDN urged all stakeholders to work towards preventing third-party spills while condemning the perpetrators calling for their apprehension and prosecution.act and urged that the perpetrators be fished out and prosecuted.
