Oil Spill: Shell distributes relief materials to community in Bayelsa

The Obololi community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa has received relief materials from Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

This followed the Feb. 16 oil leak that discharged crude and polluted the River Nun in the community.

The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) had traced the source of the leak to a 16 inch Nun River-Kolo Creek underwater pipeline operated by SPDC.

Mr Goodnews Okoi, Chairman, Obololi Community Development Committee (CDC), confirmed this in an interview with our reporter on Monday in Yenagoa.

Okoi said that the items delivered during the weekend include drinking water and perishable fresh food items.

He explained that the community leaders immediately distributed the fish while other items would be distributed among the victims of the leak.

Okoi said that the Obololi River has been temporarily diverted (dammed) to create access to the underwater pipeline for examination by the joint investigation team.

He also said that a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) to the spill point has been scheduled for Monday.

JIV is a statutory investigation by regulators and impacted communiries after every spill incident to asertain the cause, volume of oil discharge and area of impact.

The NOSDRA had recommended a temporary diversion of the river to create access to the leak point on the pipeline.

They said this would make for an empirical examination to identify the cause of the leak.

NAN reports that the logistics challenge of mobilising heavy equipment including excarvators and swamp buggies to the coastal community has delayed the JIV.

The CDC Chairman regretted that the diversion of the Obololi River to pave way for the JIV was a disruption to the fishing activities and transportation in the area.

“The diversion of the river is causing some discomfort to us as a community but it is a sacrifice we are making to ascertain the real cause of the spill.

“We have gone through a lot since the spill occured on Feb. 16 and yet we remained patient until Shell brought the relief materials to show empathy to us,” Okoi said.

It was learnt from Obololi community sources that recovery of spilled crude into plastic tanks was already ongoing.

Mr Michael Adande, a Spokesman for SPDC, told NAN that the oil firm has shut oil feeds into the leaking pipeline.

Adande pledged to update NAN on relief, remediation and response effort in due course.