Environmental rights advocates have expressed concern about the ongoing environmental deterioration as it is estimated that operators in the Niger Delta had spilled oil worth a total of N711 billion.
Data from the Nigerian Oil Spill Monitor, a division of NOSDRA’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, showed that 18 companies were responsible for a total of 23, 896 barrels of crude oil spilled last year.
The entire income lost by the enterprises to the threat was around $1.7 million, or N711 billion, as of last year, when Brent International was sold at an average price of $71 per barrel on the global market.
A breakdown of who spilt what showed that while Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, spilt a total of 4097 barrels, Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, spilt 1029 barrels. Mobil Producing Nigeria, MPN, spilt the most in the year under review with 12, 404 barrels, as Heritage spilt 344 barrels.
The Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) recorded 1142 barrels; Eroton, E&P 4315 barrels; Seplat Energy, 44bbls; Chevron, 11bbls; ERL, 75 barrels; TotalEnergies, 47bbls, as First Energy spilt two barrels. Also, Platform reported one barrel; Midwestern, 19bbls; Neconde, 23bbls; Aitei E&P, 244bbls; ND West, 71bbls; ESSO, 27bbls; and NewCross E&P, one barrel.
The NOSDRA’s data showed that SPDC reported a total of 147 spills in the year; NAOC ,106 spills; MPN, 30; Heritage, 19; NPDC, 11; Eroton E&P, 11; Seplat, 11; Chevron, 10; ERL, 7; TotalEnergies, 6; First, 4. Others were: Platform, 4; Midwestern, 3; Neconde, 3; Aiteo E&P, 2; Heirs Holding, 3; ND West, 2; TUPNI, 1; NNPC-NPSC, 1; ESSO, 1; and NewCross E& reported just one spill incident.
According to NOSDRA, operational problems were the main cause of the leaks in the year under review and their volume peaked between July and September.
On the other side, there was less oil spilled as a result of sabotage and oil theft.
For the time period chosen, there were about 383 publicly accessible records of oil spills; 33 of these oil spill locations weren’t inspected by a Joint Investigation team.
In 122 of these, the firm did not offer an estimate of the amount of oil that had been spilled. According to sources, 3.776 million liters, or around 119 full oil tanker trucks, or 23,897.271 barrels of oil were spilled.
On major oil spills, over 250 barrels were spilt into inland waters, or over 2,500 barrels spilt on land, swamp, shoreline and the open sea. The report said seven medium oil spills, representing between 25-250 barrels, were spilt into inland waters, or 250-2,500 barrels spilt on land, swamp, shoreline and the open sea.
A total of 240 minor oil spills of up to 25 barrels were spilt into inland waters, or 250 barrels spilt on land, swamp, shoreline and the open sea. A total of 175 of these were fewer than 10 barrels in size, while 128 oil spills could not be categorised by the agency.
