TheCable

The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) says a recent oil spill from its facility at Peremabiri community, Bayelsa state, was triggered by the residue of a previous incident. 

Earlier, findings by regulators and stakeholders revealed that operational error at Diebu Creek Flowstation was responsible for the oil spill. 

In a statement on Tuesday, Bola Essien-Nelson, media relations manager, SPDC, clarified that the reported leak was from an old incident caused by third-party interference. 

Essien-Nelson said the August 26 incident was an oil sheen from a previous incident and not a new spill.

Oil sheen is a shiny rainbow colour that appears on the water surfaces due to oil or gasoline spilled.

“The well and Diebu Creek flow station (facility) has not been in operation since February 26 when the facility was shut due to the unavailability of the Trans Niger Pipeline,” NAN quoted Essien-Nelson as saying. 

“A Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the site revealed that the incident was caused by third-party interference and theft of SPDCJV property.

“A cleanup of the free phase oil was immediately carried out, while assessment of the residual impact is scheduled to happen in November when water levels are expected to be low enough to allow for the impact assessment.

“This will be followed by remediation of the site after due approval of the Remediation Action Plan by The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

“On August 26, SPDC received a report of an oil sheen sighted at the same site of the May 4 incident.” 

According to her, the community “believes that this oil sheen is the result of a new spill”. 

She, however, said that was not the cause of the spill. 

“A follow-up JIV conducted on Sept. 6 revealed that the sheen was the residual impact from the same sabotage/vandalism of May 4,” she said.

The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had said equipment failure caused the spill incident. 

It said the joint investigation visit (JIV) showed that the incident, which occurred on August 24, was due to an operational mishap that discharged crude oil within SPDC’s operational area with no impact on the third party area. 

Return Koma, who represented the Peremabiri community on the JIV, had also said officials of SPDC, as well as regulators, were unanimous that the incident was traced to equipment failure.