According to a new assessment released on Tuesday, Nigeria will need $12 billion over the course of 12 years to clean up decades-old oil spills in the southern Bayelsa state. The report specifically blamed Shell and Eni for the majority of the contamination.
In the Niger Delta, which is plagued by pollution, war, and corruption related to the oil and gas business, Bayelsa is one of the major oil-producing states.
Oil giants in Nigeria have long been the target of legal action about Niger Delta spills, which they attribute primarily to pipeline sabotage, vandalism, and illegal refining.
In a report, the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission stated that it began an investigation into the effects of spills in 2019 and examined data from the firm, blood samples from persons in affected areas, and evidence from forensic scientists.
The inquiry found, among other things, that harmful chemicals from spills and gas flaring were found in samples of soil, water, air, and in the blood of local individuals several times greater than the safe limits, according to the commission.
“The report finds failures of strategy, prevention, response, and remediation by oil companies,” it stated.
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited’s representative stated that the company was not given access to the final report and hence was unable to respond.
An Eni spokeswoman claimed that theft to supply clandestine refineries, illegal exports, and sabotage were to blame for the oil spills, but the corporation committed to cleaning up all incidents.
According to the spokesman, “Eni conducts its activities in accordance with the sector’s international environmental best practices, without any distinction on a country basis.” The majority of the gas produced by Eni’s Nigerian subsidiary was turned into LNG and supplied to local power plants.
According to the commission’s study, oil company-led clean-ups were frequently poorly handled and might further contaminate soil and groundwater. Toxins that cause burns, lung difficulties, and the risk of cancer were pervasive.
The commission utilized a formula created by the United Nations to determine the cost of cleaning up spills in Ogoniland in the Niger Delta more than ten years ago and concluded that “the clean-up will cost US$12 billion over 12 years” in Bayelsa.
An organization monitoring the project warned last year that the level of pollution in Ogoniland, which was the subject of a historic $1 billion clean-up operation involving a U.N. agency, may be higher than initially thought.
