In the wake of the first report cataloging the widespread oil spill damage in the Niger Delta reports of a new spill emerge.

Fresh oil spill seen near Shell pipeline in Nigeria’s restive southern oil delta

By Associated Press, Published: August 21
Reposted from The Washington Post

LAGOS, Nigeria — Community leaders in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta say a new oil spill has been seen near a Royal Dutch Shell PLC pipeline where a fire broke out earlier this week.

The oil sheen could be seen Sunday near the Okordia Rumuekepe trunkline in Bayelsa state, which is operated by Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary. The same trunkline saw a fire break out Friday.

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image source:  guardian.co.uk

by Ben Amunwa

Reposted from Platform, August 17, 2011

Today, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) warned that Nigeria stands to lose billions of dollars in oil revenue over the coming years if the new oil law, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed unamended.

“NEITI does not see the rationale for passing a bill that is designed to reduce government revenue from petroleum operations by a minimum of $3 billion annually through inappropriate and unfavourable adjustments to the fiscal provisions,” the agency said in a statement.

“Sadly, the House of Representatives Report establishes fiscal terms with a government share of oil revenues below internationally competitive levels and with a structure that will result in a rapid erosion of government petroleum revenues during the next 5 years.”

I should point out that Nigeria has lost billions to successive corrupt regimes. But that’s another blog post entirely.

Here’s some background on the PIB.

The PIB, presented to the National Assembly in 2008, is Nigeria’s attempt to re-structure its embattled oil industry, primarily to resolve long-standing funding issues and incorporate NNPC, the national oil company. However, the Bill has been subject to substantial mission creep, and could eventually affect a wide range of issues from fiscal terms, gas flaring to host community rights.

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Read the joint position paper on the PIB from Social Action, ERA, and CISLAC and see the latest version of the PIB

Nigeria: Oil-polluted Ogoniland could become environmental model

UN says clean-up operation following two massive oil spills in the Niger Delta could benefit other African countries developing their oil reserves

By John Vidal
Reposted from  guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 9 August 2011

Ogoniland is one of the most oil-polluted places on earth but it could become a model for other countries wanting to clean up their environments or avoid making the same mistakes, the UN has said.

“This could be the world’s biggest oil contamination clean-up,” said Nick Nuttall, spokesman for the UN’s environment programme (UNEP) director, Achim Steiner. “It is up to the government of Nigeria what happens now, but [from talks with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja this week] there appears to be a willingness to act,” he said while in London.

Preliminary cost estimates to decontaminate and restore the devastated ecology of the 1,000 sq km of land and water are nearly $1bn for the first five years, with much more money possibly needed over the full 30 years it will take to clean up the region, said UNEP chief scientist Joseph Alcamo in London.

But he said that if governments and oil companies were prepared to put up the money to act, it could provide work to train tens of thousands of Ogonis, leave the area “pristine” and help many other African countries that were on the point of commercially developing their oil reserves.

São Tomé, Ghana, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia all expect to produce oil in the next 10 years. “One in 10 barrels of oil in the world presently comes from Africa. It is very likely that oil production will increase on the continent. Countries can learn from this painful experience,” said Alcamo.

As well as immediate measures, such as warning Ogoni people if they are drinking from polluted wells and proposing that the oil companies rethink their clean-up procedures, the UN recommended that a global centre for excellence for environmental restoration be set up in Ogoniland.

Full article

image: UNEP Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland

Shell accepts liability for two oil spills in Nigeria

By John Vidal

Wednesday 3 August 2011

Reposted from guardian.co.uk

Oil giant faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars following class action suit brought on behalf of communities in Bodo, Ogoniland

The impact of an oil spill near Ikarama in the Niger delta. Photograph: Amnesty International UK

Shell faces a bill of hundreds of millions of dollars after accepting full liability for two massive oil spills that devastated a Nigerian community of 69,000 people and may take at least 20 years to clean up.

Experts who studied video footage of the spills at Bodo in Ogoniland say they could together be as large as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, when 10m gallons of oil destroyed the remote coastline.

Until now, Shell has claimed that less than 40,000 gallons were spilt in Nigeria.

Papers seen by the Guardian show that following a class action suit in London over the past four months, the company has accepted responsibility for the 2008 double rupture of the Bodo-Bonny trans-Niger pipeline that pumps 120,000 barrels of oil a day though the community.

Ogoniland is a small region of the Niger delta which threw out Shell in 1994 for its pollution but then saw eight of its leaders, including the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, executed by the government.

The crude oil that gushed unchecked from the two Bodo spills, which occurred within months of each other, in 2008 has clearly devastated the 20 sq km network of creeks and inlets on which Bodo and as many as 30 other smaller settlements depend for food, water and fuel.

No attempt has been made to clean up the oil, which has collected on the creek sides, washes in and out on the tides and has seeped deep into the water table and farmland.

According to the communities in Bodo, in two years the company has only offered £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and a few cartons of sugar, tomatoes and groundnut oil. The offers were rejected as “insulting, provocative and beggarly” by the chiefs of Bodo, but later accepted on legal advice.

Shell’s acceptance of full liability for the spills follows a class action suit bought on behalf of communities by London law firm Leigh Day and Co, which represented the Ivory Coast community that suffered health damage following the dumping of toxic waste by a ship leased to multinational oil company Trafigura in 2006.

Many other impoverished communities in the delta are now expected to seek damages for oil pollution against Shell in the British courts. On average, there are three oil spills a day by Shell and other companies working in the delta. Shell consistently blames the spills on local youths who, they argue, sabotage their network of pipelines.

“The news that Shell has accepted liability in Britain will be greeted with joy in the delta. The British courts may now be inundated with legitimate complaints,” said Patrick Naagbartonm, coordinator for the Centre of Environment and Human Rights in Port Harcourt.

Full article

Four Communities: Imiringi, Elebele, Otuasega and Oruma stage peaceful protest against Shell, Friday, 08 July 2011

Reposted from Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth Nigeria)

INTRODUCTION:

Four communities where Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] operates in recently issued a 14 days ultimatum to the company, demanding for implementation of agreement reached with the communities in 1999. The communities include: Oruma, Otuasega, Elebele and Imiringi; all Ogbia speaking Ijaw communities in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, few kilometres to President Goodluck Jonathan’s community, Otueke.

Following the ultimatum to Shell, leaders of the community had appeared before the Joint Military Task Force [JTF] at the expiration of the time with a view to settle the matter amicably. Unfortunately, Shell could not convince the aggrieved communities that are demanding that the company honour the agreement it reached with them in 1999, and they decided to stage a peaceful protest to the heavily guarded Shell facility, the Kolo Creek Logistic Base.

ERA’s field monitor witnessed the protest that took place on the 7th of July 2011 and some of the protesters spoke with him.

TESTIMONIES:

We are here for a peaceful protest but if the JTF handles this matter in a violent way we shall only retreat and return in full force. Then it will be too bad for Shell because Shell has cheated us for too long. The Kolo Creek communities have been known to be very peaceful but if the soldiers and Shell take undue advantage of our peaceful disposition today to intimidate us, we shall not take it. If we hear any gun shot or if any of our members is injured here today by the soldiers, the rest of the state and the country will hear our action. All we are demanding for is that Shell should respect the agreement it reached long ago with our people; these four communities. They agreed to extend electricity to our communities but they are not doing so; while benefiting heavily from our oil wells. This is not a fresh demand, it is an agreement reached with us that we are trying to enforce.  — Amakiri Joseph, Vice-Chairman of the Community Development Committee [CDC] of Oruma

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‘Nigeria loses 300,000 barrels of oil daily’, by Roseline Okere, The Guardian Nigeria, Monday, 04 July 2011

Former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, photo: The Guardian Nigeria

DPR raises concern over depleting reserves

DESPITE efforts of the Federal Government   to check some cartels that are involved in oil theft, especially in the Niger Delta, their activities are costing the nation 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).

The government is losing this amount of the natural resource at a time that the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has expressed the need to search for new oil deposits in order to boost depleting reserves.

The former Special Adviser to the President on Petroleum Matters, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, told The Guardian that government was aware of the situation and would ensure that those who were involved in the theft were brought to book.

He stated:  “Oil theft in the Niger Delta is a very serious matter.  The government has been combating them with military personnel.  The amount of oil they steal is about 300,000 bpd. This is not good at all for the economy.  These people are supported by big cartels of international agencies. They sell this oil cheaply. The government is doing all it can to put a stop to this huge lose. The government is interested in elimination them.”

In 2009, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Limited disclosed that Nigeria lost about $1.5 billion yearly to crude oil theft.

“Criminal gangs continue to steal oil from our pipelines at an estimated rate of 100,000 barrels a day. Theft and illegal refining cause extensive environmental damage. Sabotage and theft together accounted for more than 80 per cent of the spill volume from SPDC facilities in 2010”, Chairman/Managing Director of SPDC, Mutiu Sunmonu said.

WikiLeaks said recently that a United States diplomatic cable quoting a Nigerian official showed that a member of a government panel on troubles in the nation’s Niger Delta implicated some top political leaders as being the biggest forces behind the theft.

It claimed that the theft also fueled arms sales to the restive region while causing environmental damage and cutting production in a nation crucial to U.S. oil supplies.

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