No containment for two month old oil spill

At least 800 barrels of oil is oozing unfettered daily in Odidi, an area in the western Delta region. This has been going on for over two months and the spill is causing massive pollution in the area. The spillage is reported to have started, following an attack on an oil well owned by the country's largest international oil company, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC), by crude oil thieves.

Odidi Well 36, in SPDC's Western Facility, was hacked into on August 14, 2009. However the theft went awry when the equipment deployed by the bandits broke, causing hydrocarbon fuels, a mixture of oil and gas, to spurt out under immense pressure. The flow has continued till date. The well is located in a mangrove swamp and the region is already feeling the impact of the pollution. The oil has completely covered the water and the surrounding crops are dying.

"Yes there is a spill resulting from bunkering activities in Odidi Well 36," Tony Okonedo, the Communications and Media manager of SPDC told NEXT."The region is a very difficult swamp terrain," he added, explaining the seemingly slow response of the oil company in dealing with the problem. "It is spurting at a huge distance, Shell is losing about 800 barrels of crude daily and this happened since last month. The atmosphere is filled with fumes. If the fumes get to a source of ignition, it could be another Jesse experience," said an industry source who spoke on the conditions of anonymity.

The new challenge

An industry source who spoke to NEXT said although Odidi well 36 was not producing at the time of the attempted theft, the damage caused to the well head is substantial and the SPDC may be facing costs running into millions of dollars in order to stop the flow of the crude. The costs lie in the technicalities required to put a stop to the spill. "The well had been plugged in because of the problems in the Niger Delta. When you are producing, the valve would have been connected to a flexible pipeline," our source said, explaining that the damage done by the thieves was to the oil plug rather than on a pipeline. "This is a serious problem for Shell.

The process of stopping that flow is very technical. It is the same process that it took to drill that well that is needed to sink it. If they cannot repair that well head, they will have to drill another well beside it to be able to sink the old one. This is a very dangerous thing to do because of the fumes in the atmosphere. This is not a normal destruction of oil pipelines. The oil head has been completely compromised and Shell may have to drill a relief well as a permanent solution to this problem," our source said.

SPDC would, however, not be specific about the extent of the damage nor of the methods through which the problem will be curtailed. "I don't know the extent of the damage but at the moment, we are doing everything we can," Mr. Okonedo said. When pressed further, Mr. Okonedo went on to say: "When we can access the site, we would usually control spills immediately. But this is a very difficult terrain, "We are working to recover the spilt crude and we are preparing the access to site. When we have done that, we will secure the well, that is to stop the spill and then we can begin the cleanup of the environment," he said.

The government's response

The government agency in charge of the management of oil spills, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), admits the problem had been brought to its notice. That, however, seemed to be the only thing they are certain about. Despite SPDC's explanation on the clean up operation, Akidele Olubunmi, the Director of the Warri Zone of the spill detection agency, told NEXT in a telephone interview on Tuesday, that the spill had been contained although he admitted that his agency had not visited the site to confirm if this was indeed the case.

"The information at my disposal is that the spill has been contained. That is the information that Shell sent to us in the form A, ... we have arranged for the investigation but because of security challenges, we have not been able to conduct our own joint investigation with the stake holders," Mr. Olubunmi said.

Shell's many troubles

SPDC is Nigeria's largest international oil company and is responsible for more than 50% of the country's daily crude production. This year, a number of SPDC facilities have been attacked by thieves or vandals. There are reports that problems like these, in addition to the Niger Delta unrest, have caused a drastic decline in SPDC's total production output. SPDC's on-shore production which last year was put at about 300,000 barrels per day is currently down to about 120,000 barrels per day.

Although Mr. Okonedo would not go into the details of how much SPDC has lost this year, he did admit that the crisis in the Delta had taken its toll on the company." I can confirm to you that illegal bunkering activities in the western operation area is a major concern to us. It is not just limited to the Odidi oil wells, the Egwa and Jones Creek regions which are all in the Delta area as well. Production has been affected by the overall situation in the Delta," he said.

The spokesperson for SPDC, Precious Okolobo, also confirmed to NEXT that in October, there were fire outbreaks in at least two wells. "SPDC was informed of wellhead fires at Odidi well 14 and Egwa well 14 in Western operations on October 17 and October 30," Mr. Okolobo said, adding that the fires have since been extinguished. "There was no impact on production as we were not producing in these areas," he said.