Another Equipment Failure Oil Spill From Agip’s Idu Well 11

 

Spill Official [JIV] Ref No: 2021/ LAR/028/058

Location: Egbebiri community environment, Biseni Kingdom.

GPS Coordinates:  Elev: 14m, N05°16.323’, E006°32.986’ [from previous visit]

 Occupation: Fishing and farming main occupation.

Date of Spill: 7^th /8^th May, 2021

Date of ERA/FoEN site visit: 9^th May, 2021 [Sunday]

Report by: Alagoa Morris

INTRODUCTION:

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights made it clear in Article 24 that  ‘’All peoples shall have the right to a general satisfactory environment favourable to their development’’ but sadly, the fishing community of Egbebiri can not boast of an environment that meets the declaration.

Spewed crude oil (whether it is released under pressure into the air, or spilled on land or water) in our environment is toxic and inimical to the space where it impacts. The people are always negatively affected, as they depend on the Environment for almost everything, especially for forest resources, [which includes hunting, collection of herbs, fruits and timber], fishing and farming.

Over the years the people of Egbebiri in Biseni kingdom of Yenagoa local government area, Bayelsa State have experienced several oil spills, many of which are yet to be cleaned/remediated. All of the oil spill reports documented by the Environmental Rights Action/ Friends of the Earth Nigeria [ERA/FoEN] in this community environment have occurred as a result of equipment failure – oil wellheads.  

ERA/FoEN have had cause to visit the environment of Idu Well 5 and 11 located within the same place in the past and it has always been Idu Well 11 spewing crude oil into the environment. Our field monitors received information about this current spill in the evening of Saturday, 8^th May, 2021 and after confirming from the regulators, decided to visit the site early on Sunday, 9^th May, 2021.

At the Spill Site:

ERA/FoEN led a team which included journalists to the site, and they met with the contact person for Agip and community at Tein, Biseni who led the team to the spill environment. Although ERA/FoEN field monitor was aware that NOAC had embarked on high block fencing of all the company’s Wellheads in Biseni environment, it was the first time ERA/FoEN was visiting this site since it got fenced and is now heavily guarded by armed military personnel.

ThankGod George, Agip, and the Community Contact man who led the team with the permission of the security officials to observe the crude oil impacted environment outside the fenced Wellheads environment. After the physical observation of the impacted environment, an eye witness account was documented thus;

‘’ I am George ThankGod by name, from Egbebiri community; a contact man to NAOC. NAOC is the owner of this facility, Wells 5 and 11 where the spill happened on the 7^th around 10:00pm till about 8:00am before they came and tried to stop it. And the level of damage is something terrible. When I came to site I met the military men on duty and I asked them what happened. They informed me that on that 7^th [of May, 2021] the noise on the Well, the Christmas Tree was very high and they called the authorities [NAOC] and they came on that 7^th May, to reduce the pressure of the well. After they left, at night they saw the spill incident and it was all over the place. And it continued until the following morning which is on the 8^th of May, 2021. I being a NAOC contact placed a call to the company to inform them of the oil spillage. But before they came the site, the long hours of spill have inflicted this level of damage on our environment.

I hereby use this medium to call on the relevant agencies to ensure that prompt action is taken so as to prevent the spill spreading to the water bodies in the environment.  He said, as you can see all the leaves on the trees is changing colour. When the rains come if nothing is done swiftly, it would bring all the spewed oil to the ground. So I am calling on Agip, the Federal and State governments to come to our aid with actions that would enable the environment regain its natural glory. We have bush mango [Irvinga gabonensis], we also have what we call bush rice all over. This is a forest where our people come to earn our living. We have snails and different animals too. But now, as I am saying, the environment is polluted. So, we need urgent response from NAOC. The spill occurred from Idu Well 11 and it was due to equipment failure.’’

OBSERVATION/CONCLUSION:

Although leaves of trees, shrubs and grasses within the environment observed had the signs oily signs of being affected by the crude oil which must have escaped from the Idu Well 11 in gaseous form, some grasses had already wilted. So soiled by crude oil, it is expected that in the next few days of week, much of the vegetation around would have wilted leaves or even die as field experience has often shown. However, the volume of crude oil sighted on ground at the time of ERA/FoEN visit wasn’t much; even though every drop of crude oil is inimical to the environment. Some quantities of crude oil was observed in front of the gate leading into the fenced Wellheads environment, on the road and on the left and right hand side. Maybe due to the little rain, some quantity of crude oil had also spread to a nearby body of water described by natives as a creeklet or part of the swamp; about 40 meters away from the gate [right hand side, facing outside] 

As observed in the introduction, even though the oil spills from Agip facilities have always been traced to equipment and not sabotage or third party interference in Biseni environment just as this one has shown, it appears NAOC has taken steps to fence and have the military around all Wellheads to forestall shutting down of the wellheads by protesting community folks. Yes, in the past wellheads used to be shut down when community folks protested against alleged denial of certain basic things like electricity and non-payment of surveillance contractors of the oil company. ERA/FoEN has witnessed some of those protests and very much aware of oil wells being shut down then. While it is nice for Agip to ensure protection of company facilities and non-stoppage of production; the cost to have the Nigerian Soldiers in all the Oil Well sites is a huge cost to the nation too; especially at a time when the country is experiencing unprecedented scale of insecurity. Funds which could better improve the living conditions and wellbeing of the community folks is spent on the military. In order to identify these areas where the soldiers are, they are now referred to as ‘’Camps’’. The environment of the current oil spill is now identified with a signpost on the main road as ‘’ Camp One, Egbebiri Location 5, 11’’ [having Idu Wells 5 and 11 there].

Having soldiers around these facilities that continue to spew crude oil into the environment is another strategy to prevent or deny Environmental/Human Rights advocacy NGOs like ERA/FoEN and the media from access and wherewithal to freely go about their legitimate work in community environment. This played out a little during this visit, as the ERA/FoEN led team was not allowed to leave the environment when they wanted to leave. The soldiers were communicating with Agip and their superior officers and, they prevented the team from leaving for about 25 minutes. When ERA/FoEN’s Alagoa Morris protested, the soldiers said they were only obeying instructions. At first they were two [Soldiers], but at that point they invited three of their equally armed colleagues who were inside their portacabin inside the fenced environment to come and join them. Finally, the order to let the ERA/FoEN led them go came from the other end [ following repeated phone calls by the soldiers and Contact man to Agip and community] on the excuse that it was raining and the people disallowed from leaving were under the rain.

Available records from ERA/FoEN indicate that there has been previous oil spills from this particular Idu Well 11 operated by Agip.  These include: 7^th January, 2012 around 10:00pm-11:00pm [this occurred after replacement of some pipelines], Spill also occurred on Wednesday, 25^th June, 2014 and very closely on 22^nd October, 2018 and on November 4, 2018 before the current incident. All were due to equipment failure.

Before concluding this Field Report, ERA/FoEN confirmed that Joint Investigation Visit [JIV] was carried out on Sunday, 9^th May, 2021. This is why the official Spill Reference No. is indicated in this report; sourced from the JIV report. Cause of spill was attributed to equipment failure.

ERA/FoEN DEMAND:

It is very obvious that the presence of soldiers has not stopped oil spills from Agip Oilwells in Egbebiri and Biseni kingdom as a whole. In the light of the above, ERA/FoEN make these demands:

[1] The Nigerian Agip Oil Company [NAOC] should take steps to ensure effective monitoring and maintenance of company facilities, as the integrity of Idu Well 11 is in question. 

[2] The impacted environment should be promptly cleaned up by Agip.

[3] The regulators, especially NOSDRA and Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment that signed the JIV report should follow up to ensure impacted environment is cleaned up as soon as possible as the rains are here.

[4] Community folks should continue to remain alert and report incidents and related observations to the relevant agencies of government, Agip and NGOs like ERA/FoEN.

N/B: Some of the photos are bearing wrong date [2015], due to wrong setting of the Sonny 20.1 Megapixels camera used. Please disregard that date.