Oil spill: Bayelsa community gets relief materials from Shell

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

The Obololi community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, on Monday confirmed receipt of relief materials after the February 16 oil leak discharged crude and polluted the River Nun.

Mr Goodnews Okoi, Chairman, Obololi Community Development Committee (CDC) confirmed the development in a telephone chat on Monday

Okoi said that the community took delivery of the materials which included drinking water, food items including perishable fresh food items like fish among others at the weekend.

He explained that the community leaders immediately decided to commence distribution of perishable items like fish while other items will be distributed among the impacted.

Okoi said the arrival of the items following their cries to Shell, the operator of the Nun River-Kolo pipeline was welcome.

He noted 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, impacted communities after every spill incident to ascertain the cause, volume of oil discharge and area of impact.

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

The spill agency, however, recommended a temporary diversion of the river to create access to the leak point on the pipeline for empirical examination to identify the cause of the leak.

The logistics challenge of mobilising heavy equipment including excavators 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 occurred on Feb 16 and yet we remained patient until Shell brought the relief materials to show empathy and concern 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 earlier told NAN that the oil firm has shut oil feeds into the leaking pipeline.

Adande pledged to update on relief, remediation and Response effort but has yet to do so.