Yemisi Izuora
A report by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, (NOSDRA) has said that some major oil companies encountered oil spill incidents in the month of August.
The majors include, Total Exploration and Production Company,Mobil Producing Nigeria, (MPN), Addax Petroleum.
Also an indigenous oil company Aiteo and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, (PPMC) the marketing arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), also recorded cases of oil spills during the month.
According to the NOSDRA data, MPN, Addax and PPMC cases were confirmed while Total and Aiteo spill incidents were currently being reviewed, awaiting confirmation.
The data showed that MPN spilled 0.77 barrels of unspecified contaminants on August 12 due to unspecified causes offshore Akwa Ibom State.
The incident was reported the next day and although the spill was confirmed by NOSDRA, the cause of the spill still remains a mystery.
For Total, the data indicated that it had a double crude oil spill during the period. One occurred on August 16 , and was reported to NOSDRA on the same day while the second happened on August 18.
The first incident, according to NOSDRA, occurred at kilometre 27.9 of the Obagi-Rumuekpe 12” crude oil export pipeline in Ekwutche, Rumuekpe community, Emuola Local Government Area of Rivers State. 18 barrels or about 2,860 litres of crude oil was spilled due to sabotage and theft.
The spill was stopped on August 23. The impact of the spill was within and outside the company’s right of way, NOSDRA added.
The second incident saw Total spill 1,200 barrels (about 190,000 litres) of crude oil due to sabotage and theft at KM 25/26 Obagi-Rumuekpe 12” crude oil export pipeline, Imogu Rumuekpe community in Rivers State, according to the spill data.
The spill was stopped on August 31 and 20 barrels of crude was recovered. The impact of the spill was within the company’s right of way.
Also, NOSDRA reported that on August 2, Addax spilled an unknown volume of crude oil due to unspecified causes in Adanga field, offshore, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State while Aiteo Petroleum spilled 0.1 barrels (about 16 litres) of crude at Nembe creek 1 well 55s, Mami-waterkiri on August 3.
The incident which was reported on August 6 is, however, awaiting confirmation.
Meanwhile, the spill data also stated that an unknown person stole bolts from the well head.
No amounts of crude oil have been recovered so far but the estimated area covered by the spill is 300.0m2.
For PPMC, NOSDRA said it spilled Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, also known as petrol, at Ije-Ode (ATC-Mosimi), leading to a fire out break but the cause of the spill and the quantity is yet to be determined.
As a follow to the August data, NOSDRA has reported that Mobil Producing Nigeria, on September 1, spilled 0.084, 528 barrels of crude oil due to unspecified causes in Ubit PP, offshore, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State which was reported the next day.
The spill, which has been confirmed, was estimated to have covered 540000.0m2 area.