The agency said most
of the spills were caused by vandals who break pipelines to steal petroleum
products.
According to Punch
newspaper, the Director-General of NOSDRA, Idris Musa, said this in Abuja.
“In 2018 we had
about 600 oil spill incidents and in 2019, we had over 700 oil spill-impacted
sites across the country,” he said. “These were oil spill incidents recorded in
Nigeria that we’ve compiled and it is based on the fact that by law if there is
an oil spill, you must report it. You must report any oil spill, no matter how
small.”
Theft, major cause
of spills
Mr Musa said most of
the spills are as a result of oil theft “by those who go to pipelines to
install valves.”
He said the agency had
a similar incident about two weeks ago.
He also said it was
difficult to record the type of oil spills that were recorded in Nigeria in any
other part of Africa.
“In fact, aside from
Mexico, which is not an African country anyway, you will hardly find such a
situation anywhere else,” he stated.
“Whenever we go for
international conferences and we say we record over 700 oil spills in Nigeria,
people ask how it happened.
“When you tell them
that people go to oil pipelines to install valves to fetch oil like water, they
will ask you if the people who fetch the products are crazy. This is because
the pressure inside the pipes is so huge and it can cause severe damage if
ruptured,” he said.
Other leakages
He said underground
tanks of many filling stations in the downstream oil sector leaked products
into their surrounding environment.
He said the agency
has started compiling a checklist of defaulters as the leakages are not healthy
for the environment
“If your tank spills
oil as a downstream operator, you will have to clean it up. We have noticed
that for some of them who have already spilled products, they find it difficult
to clean up,” he said
He disclosed that
the affected filling stations had been mandated to clean the spills or face
sanctions.
Pipeline vandalism-
a trend in Nigeria
Nigeria loses huge
revenue daily due to the constant attack on its oil pipelines and facilities.
As of November 2019,
the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) said Nigeria
had, in the last ten years, lost $41.9 billion worth of crude oil and refined
products.
In its report,
“Stemming the Increasing Cost of Oil Theft to Nigeria”, NEITI said Nigeria
loses an average of $11million daily, which translates to $349 million in a
month and about $4.2 billion annually to crude and product losses arising from
stealing, process lapses and pipeline vandalism.
Also, in its January
Financial and Operations Report, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) said vandalism of its pipelines across the country recorded a 50 per
cent increase.
“Sixty pipeline
points were vandalized during the period, compared to the 40 incidents recorded
in December last year,” the NNPC said.
Asides from the
revenue being denied by the federal government by this act, oil theft
activities pose a threat to human life. It compounds the problem of
environmental degradation and pollution of water-ways and ultimately the risk
of explosion claiming lives and properties.
0 Comments