Hope Fades for Oil Spill Cleanup in Nigeria

Some of the massive destruction that remains untouched after 8 years.

Last year, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) released a report outlining Shell's role in the oil-covered mess that Nigeria's Delta region has become and calling for the creation of a $1 billion cleanup fund. The report estimated that cleaning up Ogoniland would take up to 30 years, but if this massive undertaking were to be successful, it could become a model for bringing the rest of the region back to life.



But now, eight months after the UNEP report was released, there is no cleanup effort, or even an update, to speak of. In a detailed and important post on Yale Environment 360, Fred Pearce illustrates why the silence from Abuja is ominous:

Last August, the current President Goodluck Jonathan set up a high-level committee to consider the UNEP report, chaired by the minister of petroleum resources, Diezani Allison-Madueke. She at least knows the delta. Born in Port Harcourt, she worked for Shell there for 15 years, rising to executive director, before joining the government in 2007. As part of her job as petroleum minister, Allison-Madueke also heads Shell’s partner in the delta, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Her committee is said to have reported to the president in November, but Slotte says UNEP has not been notified of any outcomes. Many fear her ministry will scupper the cleanup scheme. Its officials may be angry that the UNEP study criticized the ministry’s oversight of the oil industry and called for cleanup enforcement to be transferred to the ministry of the environment.

He also points out a disagreement over approach that may hinder the entire cleanup:

UNEP had noted in its recommendations that “until the land-based contamination has been dealt with, it will be futile to begin a clean-up of the creeks.” The point was a technical one, in a paragraph about “the sequence of remediation.” But Shell chose to interpret it as a political point. Shell said in its response that it “agrees with the UNEP finding that all sources of ongoing contamination, including activities such as crude theft and illegal refining [my italics], must be brought to an end before an effective widespread cleanup can begin.”

UNEP believes that pollution remediation can help end the war between the Ogoni people and Shell. But before it starts remediation, Shell wants the attacks on its facilities to end. If achieving that requires another law-and-order crackdown in Ogoniland, the delta’s inhabitants could easily see future cleanup teams as their enemies, not their saviors.

Pearce's piece is really worth reading in full — it provides more context to the ongoing mess in Nigeria than you're likely to see in most reporting.

For example, he sheds some light on the role that sabotage to pipelines plays in all of this. Shell blames the mess largely on sabotage to pipelines locally—even though it has been slow (as in, takes several weeks) to respond to major spills, and is responsible under Nigerian law for any spill of its oil, regardless of who is responsible. And there's no question that sabotage occurs, but to the extent that it does, Pearce explains it pretty well:

Villagers complained angrily that the oil poisoned their crops and emptied the creeks of fish, and handed me humble petitions asking for outside help.

Increasingly, the villagers have responded to their plight by taking hacksaws to the pipelines to steal oil and setting up makeshift refineries, where they distill the stolen crude to make diesel. This has compounded the delta’s devastation. Villagers say some local companies have even sabotaged pipelines as a way of extracting contracts to clean up the mess.

Let's hope Pearce is wrong and a cleanup starts soon. But history doesn't make that seem particularly likely.

There was widespread outrage when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon platform caused thousands of gallons of oil a day to spill into the Gulf of Mexico. Where's the anger for Nigeria, where a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez spill occurs every year?

To express your opinion on this outrage, contact either of the two Principal Government Officials: President--Goodluck Jonathan or Vice President--Namadi Sambo. You may send mail addressed to either to the following places.

Nigeria has an embassy in Washington, DC that may be contacted by:

Snail mail - 3519 International Place, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Telephone - 202-986-8400

Fax - 202-362-6552

Website: nigeriaembassyusa.org


OR: contact a Consulate General

New York Consulate General

Snail Mail - 575 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10022

Atlanta Consulate General

Snail Mail - 8060 Roswell Rd
Atlanta, GA 30350

Telephone - 770-394-6161

Or:

contact a Nigerian embassy or Consulate General in your own country.

Royal Dutch Shell Confirms Another Oil Leak

Shell have confirmed a leak in a pipeline serving one of their North Sea platforms. Photo courtesy: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Who would have guessed it? Yet another oil leak from a company which has made no significant changes to its drilling policies since the last catastrophe. And shame on the government officials who don't demand that changes are made and stricter safety precautions are put in place before issuing one more drilling permit.

Royal Dutch Shell has said it is working to contain an oil leak at its Gannet Alpha platform in the North Sea; but, in true CYA (cover your ass) fashion declined to specify the size of the leak. (If we don't tell them anything, maybe they won't notice the extent of the pollution.)

"We can confirm we are managing an oil leak in a flow line that serves the Gannet Alpha platform. We deployed a remote-operated vehicle to check for a subsea leak after a light sheen was noticed in the area," a Shell spokesman said.

"We have stemmed the leak significantly and we are taking further measures to isolate it. The subsea well has been shut in, and the flow line is being depressurised."

Asked about the size of the leak, a Shell spokeswoman declined to say.

One of the wells at the oilfield 112 miles east of Aberdeen has been closed, but Shell did not specify whether output was reduced.

According to Argus Media, the Gannet field produced about 13,500 barrels of oil between January and April. The field is co-owned with US firm Exxon and operated by Shell.

A document available on Shell's website says the Gannet facilities have capacity to export 88,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

Shell also said it had restarted its North Sea Brent Alpha and Bravo fields on Thursday after a seven-month shutdown, while two other fields remained shut.

The company shut all four of its Brent platforms, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta, in January for repairs.

"Brent Alpha and Brent Bravo are producing gas for export via the Flags(far north liquids and gas line) to the St Fergus gas plant," Shell said.

"It is anticipated that Brent Delta will resume export in the near future and Brent Charlie will restart in early 2012."

The statement said that the work at the Brent fields was technically challenging and depended on the weather in the area.

Green party co-leader Patrick Harvie said: "It's too early to tell how serious this spill is, but it is imperative now that Shell act both urgently and efficiently.

"They must also keep the public and the authorities properly informed about progress, something BP failed to do during the Gulf of Mexico disaster last year.

"Whatever the outcome of this incident, it certainly underlines the need for the oil industry to publish proper response plans, as Greenpeace have been asking them to do. If they refuse to do so, ministers should act to make it a condition of their licences."

Before the shut-in, the four Brent fields produced about 4.5 million cubic metres a day of gas, less than 2 percent of current UK gas demand, and just 20,000 barrels per day of oil.

Brent was once Britain's largest oilfield, and still has global significance as one of the four key North Sea crude streams along with Forties, Oseberg and Ekofisk.

Via guardian

Information Scarce on Oil Spill Near Finland

Photo courtesy of Helsinki Times. The containment booms at the port of Naantali in southwestern Finland.

Reijo Salminen, a fire brigade chief, said the oil sightings began in Naantali and ran parallel to a shipping lane to Ledsund, south of the Åland Islands. Under the circumstances the oil is likely from ship traffic leaks rather than a large spill of heavy oil being transported as cargo.

"The oil that found its way into the sea is either fuel oil or diesel oil. It floats on the surface and evaporates quickly, therefore not contaminating sites as badly as heavy oil does," he added.

Up to five ships had sailed from Naantali by midday Sunday when the first spill reports started coming in.

Finnish utility Fortum said it had found no leaks after a night of checks at its power station in Naantali.

"The oil is in the ice, but it has not hit shore yet," Salminen said. He added that sunshine will help in their clean-up efforts by evaporating some of the oil.

The coast guard will be assessing the situation.

Photo courtesy of YLE. Cleaning up after a previous oil spill in the Gulf of Finland.