By Yusuf Akinpelu
Between January 2019 and April 2021,
12 states in Nigeria recorded 881 cases
of oil spillage, according to data
obtained from NOSDRA, a government-
run satellite tracker.

About 77 per cent of the spills occurred
in only three oil-producing states:
Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers. The three are
among Nigeria’s highest oil producers
for that period. However, Nigeria’s
second-highest oil producing state
during the period, Akwa Ibom, only
witnessed 26 oil spills within that period.

The states with the highest FAAC
earning from the 13 per cent oil
derivative (and technically highest oil
production) from 2018 to 2020 were
Delta, Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa
states respectively.

The total spillage reported within this
period amounted to about 43,000
barrels of oil, worth over $3 million (at $
70 based on the May 5 crude price in
the international market), which is
equivalent to N1.23 billion (at N410 to a
dollar).

Using the 2018 Constituency Project
Report by civic organisation BudgIT, this
amount can build three classrooms of
four blocks (at N8 million each) and drill
three solar-powered boreholes with
100,000 litres capacity tank (at N25
million each) in each of the twelve
states.

The NOSDRA tracker said the data is
fluid and changes “on an ongoing basis”
as new spills are reported. The quoted
toll is as of May 1. NOSDRA only has
records of the state-by-state breakdown
for the past three years.

States with highest spills
Rivers, Delta and Bayelsa had the most
cases of oil spillage during the period.
While Rivers State had 352 spills, Delta
State had 233 cases and Bayelsa was
third with 89.

The three states together, thus, recorded
more oil spills (674) than all other
states put together (207); about 77 per
cent. In fact, each of Rivers and Delta
recorded more oil spills than the nine
other states (apart from Delta and
Bayelsa) put together (207).

Abia had 41 incidents; Imo – 31; Akwa
Ibom – 26; Edo – 19; Lagos – 11; while
Kaduna and Ondo each had 2 cases.

In terms of volume, the spills amounted
to about 26,268 barrels lost in Rivers
State; 9,134 in Delta State; and 1,219 in
Bayelsa State, according to the tracker.

States
Incidents
Barrels reported spilled
Others
74
1805.65
Abia
41
1599.58
Akwa Ibom
26
1.29
Bayelsa
89
1219.1
Bayelsa, Rivers
1
105
Delta
233
9133.99
Edo
19
93.45
Imo
31
2189.89
Kaduna
2
41
Lagos
11
100.63
Ondo
2
8
Rivers
352
26267.83
Total
881
42565.42

The three states, therefore, accounted
for over 85 per cent of the volume of oil
spills within that period. Rivers State
alone accounted for more than 60 per
cent of the spillages.

While Abia State lost 1,600 barrels of oil
to spills in the last three years, Imo
State lost 2,190 barrels. Edo lost 93
barrels; Kaduna, 41 barrels; Lagos, 101;

Ondo, 8; Akwa Ibom, 1.29.
Around 70 per cent of the spills recorded
by NOSDRA in the past 11 years were as
a result of sabotage and oil theft , also
known as bunkering, a review of the
tracker by this newspaper showed.

Financial implications of oil theft
Oil theft not only deals a huge blow to
the nation’s pipeline facilities, but it also
contributes a massive drain on the
country’s finances and causes pollution.

A PREMIUM TIMES analysis had found
that a total of 1,161 pipeline points were
vandalised across Nigeria in the 21
months between January 2019 and
September 2020.

Likewise, between October 2018 and
October 2019, the country recorded
2,181 vandalised pipeline points.

According to figures mined from the
monthly financial reports of the nation’s
public oil company, NNPC, this has a
huge toll on the nation’s oil revenue.

From January 2019 to January this year
alone, repairs of the pipelines and other
facilities came at an outlay of about
N15 billion, this newspaper found.
Data from NNPC’s monthly FAAC
reports from December 2019 to January
2021 showed that the company spent a
total of N59.1 billion on the repair and
management of the pipelines in about
one year.

Oil spill clean-up
By law, oil companies must close off oil
spill sites within 24 hours of being
notified of an oil spill on their fields.

After this is done, a Joint Investigative
Visit (JIV) is launched to determine the
extent of the spill. The team is usually
made up of representatives of the
affected community, that of the oil
company, and relevant government
agencies.

The purpose of the deployment is to
determine, among other things, the
cause, impact, and scale of the spill.

Each party is required to sign a JIV
document in case of a legal hearing or
compensation.

Within two weeks of a confirmed spill,
oil companies are mandated by the law
to submit the details of the spill
information filled in a document called
FORM B to the regulatory authorities.

When the clean-up is deemed
completed, reports of the clean-up
operations are to be filled in another
FORM C which will be submitted to the
regulatory agency.

Oil companies whose facilities are
breached always take responsibility for
oil spill clean-up, whether the spill was
due to their own operational fault or oil
theft by members of the host
communities.

However, they are required to pay
compensation to the affected local
communities affected if the spill was the
company’s fault.

Contrary to what the law stipulates,
some 1,948 (which is about 20 per
cent) of the oil spill sites recorded in the
last 11 years were not visited by a joint
investigation team, data shows.

Triggers of oil spills
Aside from bunkering and oil theft which
are potentially lucrative businesses for
criminals, oil spills have thrived due to
the inaccessibility of some oil spill sites.
This is not helped by the presence of
armed criminals involved in illegal
refining around these sites.
Even though incidents of oil spills are to
be reported within 24 hours, some go
unreported due to the vested interest of
the party responsible for the oil spill as
they will be required to clean it up and
provide compensation.

Likewise, there have been reported
cases of affected local communities
denying spill clean-up teams or
regulators access to spill sites.

Suspicion and mutual distrust among oil
companies, regulatory agencies and
local communities (some of which may
be hiding their illegal refining facilities)
have not helped this too.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/461635-analysis-77-of-oil-spills-in-nigeria-occurred-in-only-three-states.html

Elsewhere in the world, oil spills are taken seriously and the IOC involved pays millions of dollars in fine and compensation.

Here in Nigeria, such spills are treated with kid gloves even though they destroy farmlands, water bodies and aquatic lives.

I don't blame Nigeria entirely though because most of the oil spills are a result of vandalism by the locals.

In riverine parts of Rivers State, for instance, pipeline vandalism is a common practice and the soldiers assigned to man the pipelines do business with the vandals.

Incredible

Alright.

Not a serious threat. The spill has been there for years.