Oil Spill In Bayelsa Causes Fire Outbreak

Five days after a leak was detected at the Kolo Creek-Rumekpe Pipeline, which is operated by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), a serious fire has broken out. 

All Africa News reports that crude oil was found leaking into farmland and other vegetation from a trunk line that connects the Kolo Creek field to the pipeline.

The leaked was discovered on April 15 while the fire broke out on Monday, April 20.

A joint investigation conducted by the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment, the SPDC, oil regulators and community representatives concluded that the pipeline leak resulted from an act of sabotage.

The Guardian however reports that some members of the community believe the leak was caused by negligence on the part of Shell and not sabotage.

A community member who wanted to remain anonymous said: “We are not accepting the theory of sabotage at all, that facility is a restricted area and well fortified, we believe that it is the responsibility of Shell to protect their facility and if they are negligent on this they should be held liable .

Sabotage has to be defined, it cannot be used loosely to cover up the negligence of the oil firm”.

The SPDC is a joint venture consisting of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (55 percent), Shell (30 percent), Total Exploration & Production Nigeria (10 percent) and the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (5 percent).

The Guardian also revealed that Shell has begun cleaning up the oil spill. A visit to the oil spill site showed that response workers deployed to halt the spill had left the site while clean up activities were yet to start.