Niger Delta demands abandoned oil wells cleanup
Stakeholders across the Niger Delta have demanded an immediate audit and cleanup of abandoned oil wells, warning that leaking and undecommissioned infrastructure continues to threaten lives, ecosystems and public health decades after operations ceased.
The call was made in a communiqué issued at the end of the 5th Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence in Uyo.
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Stakeholders across the Niger Delta have demanded an immediate audit and cleanup of abandoned oil wells, warning that leaking and undecommissioned infrastructure continues to threaten lives, ecosystems and public health decades after operations ceased.
The call was made in a communiqué issued at the end of the 5th Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence in Uyo.
The meeting, convened by the Health of Mother Earth Foundation, attracted civil society groups, labour unions, traditional institutions, youth and women’s organisations.
In the communiqué, NDAC Convener, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, and Chairman, HRM Oba Oluwagbenga Ojagbowumi, decried the continued leakage of hydrocarbons from abandoned wells and ageing facilities, saying they were worsening pollution in communities across the region.
They cited incidents such as the abandoned wells in Otuabagi, the 2007 eruption of the SPDC Ibibio-1 well in Ikot Ada Udo, Akwa Ibom, and ongoing fires at the Ororo-1 well in Ondo State and the Alakiri wellhead in Rivers State.
The stakeholders criticised weak enforcement by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
They also argued that the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 had failed to protect host communities or ensure accountability, instead placing the burden of protecting fossil fuel infrastructure on local communities.
“The Convergence observed that oil companies frequently evade decommissioning responsibilities through divestments, corporate restructuring and regulatory loopholes.
“Every abandoned, leaking and undecommissioned oil well in the Niger Delta must be treated as a crime scene, given the continuing threats they pose to lives, livelihoods, ecosystems and public health.
“An immediate and transparent audit of all oil wells and petroleum infrastructure in the Niger Delta is demanded, alongside urgent decommissioning, remediation and ecological restoration of abandoned and unsafe facilities, with state governments leading accountability efforts and the Federal Government enforcing compliance,” the communiqué stated.
The stakeholders also called for the publication of decommissioning and abandonment fund payments in annual Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative reports, as well as greater host community involvement in environmental governance.
The theme of the 5th Niger Delta Alternatives Convergence was “Decommissioning and Accountability.”
