PORT HAR-COURT— National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, has said that due to overwhelming challenges, Nigeria still has a long way to go to be able to proactively regulate oil spill response and keep the operating environment safe.
Director-General of NOSDRA, Sir Peter Idabor, opened up on this reality yesterday in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where the agency and stakeholders ended the 2018 National Oil Spill Contingency Plan and Drills with support from Nigerian Agip Oil Company.
According to Idabor, NOSDRA, set up IN 2006, has not been able to catch up with its counterparts in other countries of the world in best practices because of inadequate funds, manpower, equipments and weak legal framework among others.
“People are saying that NOSDRA depends on oil operators to carry out its regulation duties. They say we enter their helicopters, boats and use other equipment belonging to operators to inspect or monitor spills, but what can we do really? We don’t have the tools to work.
“We are lucky we have not been faced by a large scale spill after the Bonga spill. We are getting warnings that some facilities around Cotonou could erupt. If they erupt, what do we do? We need good offices, equipment and personnel require training and retraining,” he lamented.
With oil found in Lagos and intensified prospects in the North and other areas outside the Niger Delta, Idabor said there was greater urgency to address the challenges confronting the industry regulator to effectively measure up to the dynamics of the industry.
He said, “We need amendment to the NOSDRA bill which has passed second reading. We found that the current law has a lacuna that allows operators decide which, among different regulators, to go to or honour in the event of emergencies. This shouldn’t be.
“Amendment primarily should address increased funding like our counterparts all over the world. We need equipment, helicopters to watch over the operating space. The country should have an equipment stockpile that the industry can access.”
“The law should criminalize some misconduct of perpetrators, increase fines. We are not trying to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs, but to improve lives. We want to train and retrain staffs with specialized training.
“Some oil firms are capable to assisting with training.
We don’t have the funds to get all the capacity. That’s why you see us entering their helicopter or use operators equipment sometimes when we should have and depend on our own."

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/04/nigeria-lags-behind-response-oil-spill-nosdra/
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