Business
Shell confirms oil spillage in Bayelsa community
The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has confirmed an oil spill from its facility at Agbura-Otuokpoti area of Yenagoa, the state capital.
The company’s Media Relations Manager, Bamidele Odugbesan, confirmed the incident in a statement in Yenagoa on Friday, April 2.
Odugbesan said the company got a report of the spill on March 31.
“At about 8.30 am on March 31, a community surveillance vendor reported a leak on the company’s Joint Venture pipeline at Nun River in Bayelsa.
Read also: Shell reveals investments to meet Nigeria’s domestic gas demand
“Following the development, the facility was shut down and full isolation established at 09.45 am.
“The SPDC Oil Spill Response Team was mobilised to the spill site and was able to contain the spill to prevent further spread.
“The Joint Investigation Visit team led by government regulator will determine the cause and impact of the spill,” Odugbesan said.
He, however, said that there was an anonymous note found at the spill site, suggesting sabotage.
Residents, who said the oil workers had yet to come to the site as of Friday, have resorted to scooping oil from the water surface into drums.
Ripples Nigeria had reported in February that the UK Supreme Court allowed a group of 42,500 Nigerian farmers and fishermen to sue Royal Dutch Shell (RDS) in English courts after years of oil spills in the Niger Delta contaminated land and groundwater.
Represented by law firm Leigh Day, the group of Nigerians had argued that the parent company Shell owed them a duty of care because it either had significant control of and was responsible for, its subsidiary SPDC.
Join the conversation
Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism
Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.
As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.
If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.
Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.
INVESTIGATION: In Kwara, multimillion-naira milk processing plant is abandoned, converted to a chicken outlet
After the government spent millions of naira to establish a milk processing plant in Kwara State that would provided jobs...
SPECIAL REPORT: For Sokoto communities, promise of healthcare is akin to death sentence
In this story, ABDULRASHEED HAMMAD delves into the dire realities of Primary Health Care services in Sokoto State, shedding light...
ICYMI…SPECIAL REPORT: NNPCL hides behind PIA to frustrate disclosure, accountability
Nigeria’s major oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), in what appears to be a common practice of disregard...
INVESTIGATION: Multi-million naira Ekiti resort center remains uncompleted a decade after
The multimillion-naira project, expected to comprise recreational buildings, now consists of cassava farmland, a bush used for excretion, and a...
SPECIAL REPORT: Torturous experiences of students with disabilities in Oyo tertiary institutions
For students with disabilities in Oyo state-owned tertiary institutions, learning is a torturous and distressing experience, considering the building structures...