Shell asked to pay $5bn over oil spill
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Sun News Publishing Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company(SNEPCO) has been ordered to pay $5billion as penalty over the oil spill at Bonga oil field in December last year. Director General, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency( NOSDRA), Mr. Peter Idabor, gave the directive at a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Environment yesterday.
The meeting was organised for the key actors in the Bonga oil spill to brief the committee, as well as verify the claims of affected communities.
Idabor explained that the money was an ‘administrative penalty’ considering the large quantity of crude oil discharged into the environment by Shell and the impact of the incident on the waters and aquatic life.
According to him, the penalty was also in line with what is obtainable in other oil producing countries such as Venezuela, Brazil and the United States of America.
He explained that this penalty was not the same as compensation, as compensation was only demanded from a polluter company after a proper post impact assessment had been conducted and scientific evidence of impact established.
He revealed that NOSDRA, Shell and other relevant stakeholders had concluded plans to conduct the post impact assessment on the spill as soon as approval for funding was secured from National Petroleum Investment Management Services.
Idabor said: “Although adequate containment measures were put in place to combat the Bonga oil spill, it however posed a serious environmental threat to the offshore environments. “The spilled 40,000 barrels impacted approximately 950 square kilometres of water surface; affected great number of sensitive environmental resources across the impacted area and has direct social impact on the livelihood of people in the riverine areas, whose primary occupation is fishing.
“It also potentially caused a number of physiological and hispathological effects on aquatic lives, while surviving aquatic species around the spill site would migrate farther distance to situate new habitat, thereby forcing coastal communities to move deeper into the sea to carry out fishing activities.”
Earlier, Chairman, House Committee on Environment, Mr. Uche Ekwunife , at the opening of the interactive session expressed displeasure that seven months after the spill, there were doubts if Shell carried out a thorough clean-up programme, as the oil firm was said to had hurriedly resumed operations on the facility.
Ekwunife said there were also indications that Shell had refused to accept full responsibility for the incident and had rebuffed the claims from communities allegedly impacted by the spill.
