Fresh oil spills and fire from a manifold operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has rocked Ebubu community in Eleme Local Government Area of Rivers State.
SPDC is the Nigerian subsidiary of oil multinational Shell Plc.
Micheal Adande, a spokesperson for SPDC, in a statement said a government-led joint investigation team is working to identify the cause and impact of the incident.
“The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) confirms an incident within our right of way on the Ebubu and Oghale Manifold 12 pipeline in Rivers State,” the statement reads.
It added, “we are working with industry regulators to safely contain the discharge which is on our right of way while we await the government-led joint investigation team into the cause and impact by.”
For decades, crude oil from the Niger Delta accounted for an overwhelming majority of Nigeria’s export earnings. But pollution from repeated oil spills continues to endanger the lives of the 30 million residents of the region which spans nine states and has a coastline of approximately 450 kilometres (280 miles).
Between 2011 and 2021, there were 9,870 spill incidents, which released a combined 466,214 barrels of oil into the environment, according to data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), which is responsible for monitoring and responding to oil spills in Nigeria.
About 16,000 infants in the Niger Delta died within the first month of their life in 2012 because of oil spills, according to a 2019 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal by researchers at the Swiss Institute for International Economics, University of St Gallen.
Life expectancy in the region is now 41 years, 10 years lower than the national average.
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The repeated oil spill incidents triggered an environmental assessment report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Published in August 2011, the report found widespread contamination of soil and groundwater and recommended a comprehensive clean-up to restore polluted environments in the area.
Five years later, the cleanup was launched in a glamorous affair at Bodo community in Ogoniland with notable attendees such as Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed, who was then the country’s environment minister.
Osinbajo, who inaugurated the clean-up, said the environmental restoration of Ogoniland would take 25 to 30 years and that the “methodology for the clean-up will ensure job creation for young people”.
“Oil exploration and production have been going on in Nigeria for six decades. Oil has given a boost to the Nigerian economy, but the ecosystem of the Niger Delta has been severely damaged. Fishing and agriculture have been badly affected,” he said at the event.
