Shell’s operation aggravates pollution at spill site in Bayelsa

shellThe Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has continued to discharge more crude to the environment at Ikarama community in Bayelsa, impacted by an earlier spill. SPDC had suspended the use of its vandalised pipelines and deployed trucks to convey crude from its oil fields in Ikarama community.
Residents told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Yenagoa that the practice of using trucks to lift crude from SPDC’s Ikarama manifold had gone on for a month.
A spill from the Rumuekpe crude delivery line discharged about 482 barrels of oil into the environment on Nov. 2, 2013.
According to the Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) report obtained from Shell’s website, the spill was caused by sabotage on the pipeline by oil thieves. It was reported that the spill impacted an area covering 6,400 square meters. Checks at the oil facility showed that loading of crude oil from the manifold involved opening valves on the pipes to pump crude oil into stationed trucks. Residents in the area said that the oil tanker made between six and eight trips each day for the past one month.
It was further observed that the operations had led to several leakages discharging oil into the surrounding environment where an earlier oil spill had yet to be cleaned up. According to the JIV report, recovery of the spilled oil commenced on Nov. 12, while clean up of the spill site would be completed in April 2014.
NAN investigations on Tuesday, however, showed that the clean-up had not commenced. A spokesman for the oil firm, Mr Precious Okolobo, declined comments on the slow response to the spill and use of trucks in lifting crude.