Plan to clean-up Niger-Delta oil spill will fail — Amnesty Int’l

OREDOLA ADEOLA 
Amnesty International has revealed that the efforts of the Federal Government to clean up oil spills in Niger Delta will fail unless Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, is mandated to improve its mechanism and show increased commitment in tackling the factors leading to the oil spills.

Amnesty International, in a statement credited to Mr. Mark Dummett, Amnesty International’s Researcher on Business and Human Rights, from its headquarters, disclosed that Shell must match the Federal Government’s renewed commitment to tackling oil pollution in the Niger Delta by dramatically improving how it cleans up spills.

Dummet, who had recently returned to the country, revealed that it is scandalous that Shell, which now wants the world to trust it to drill in the Arctic, has failed to properly implement the UN’s expert advice on oil spill response after so long.

He said, “President Buhari’s new directive will fail, and the Ogoni people will continue to suffer, as long as Shell fails to make significant changes to the way it approaches oil spill clean-up.

The right group advocate, also noted that Ogoniland has been devastated by years of oil spills and Shell’s clean-up operations have been utterly ineffective, despite the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) report on the issue.

“In 2011 UNEP highlighted numerous serious problems with the way Shell cleans up oil sites. But we have visited multiple sites and found oil pollution lying all around. From what we are seeing, little has changed since then,” he said.

Amnesty International said its researchers investigating spill sites in the region have this month found oil on the soil and in nearby water bodies, in areas where Shell contractors are reported to have recently carried out remediation.

Earlier, Shell had in a statement disclosed that the company has suspended gas supply to the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, with the declaration of a force majeure on gas supplies to Liquefied natural Gas, LNG, export terminal on Bonny Island in Rivers State due to a pipeline leak. The force majeure is a legal term releasing a company from contractual obligations when faced with circumstances beyond its control.‎

Commenting on the suspension of gas supply, spokesperson for Shell, Mr. Precious Okolobo, stated that the company declared force majeure on gas supplies from SPDC to Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas, NLNG, effective August 4. He, however, stated that the company was investigating the cause of the leak.

Mr. Tony Okonedo, a spokesman for NLNG, said that exports had so far been unaffected but that the company was discussing how to reschedule some shipments with its customers.

Shell had in May halted crude exports due to a leak in the Trans Forcados pipeline, following which it declared a force majeure. With a capacity of 400,000 barrels of crude per day, Forcados is one of Nigeria’s main export terminals. Two months later, in July specifically, the company lifted the force majeure following the completion of repairs on the pipeline.

The problem oil spill has been the vexed issue in the Ogoni crisis with Shell which began in the early 1990s leading to the execution of rights’ activist and playwright Ken SaroWiwa in 1995. President Buhari last week ordered the implementation of the UNEP report on oil spill in the region.