OIL SPILL IN NIGERIA

Shell Oil Spill in Nigeria

Shell Oil Spill in Nigeria

Introduction

Nigeria is on alert after the company Shell announced the spill of 40,000 barrels of oil off the coast of this country in West Africa. The spill, which has spread about 185 miles of the ocean, would be the worst in Nigeria from which in 1998 affected a reservoir of the multinational oil Mobil, according to the Nigerian National Agency for the Detection and Oil Spill Response (NOSDRA). The accident occurred on 20 while oil was being transported from a floating platform Bonga at the site of a tanker about 120 kilometres offshore from the Niger Delta. The site of Bonga, which produces about 200,000 barrels a day, has been closed temporarily as a result of the discharge.

We regret the spill. As we knew, stopped the flow of oil, "said Shell Nigeria."We regret that this spill has occurred, as we knew it stopped the flow of oil and mobilize our resources and industry to ensure that the effects are minimized," he said in a statement Mutiu Sunmonu, president of Shell Nigeria. According to the company, about half of the spilled oil has dissipated due to "evaporation and natural dispersion." Shell recognizes that the area affected is very large but notes that the oil layer is very thin (Akpofure & Efere & Ayawei, 2000).

Oil spill in Nigeria

Sunmonu has insisted they are doing everything possible to clean up the spill as soon as possible: "We are sending ships with dispersant to break up the oil slick; we are mobilizing to support aircraft to boats and infrared equipment to trace the few areas where the layer may be wider.” Each year more oil is poured in the Niger Delta that spilled by BP in the Gulf. However, these words serve as little comfort to the inhabitants of one of the areas most affected by spills of this kind in the world, where Shell has a history of negative events. Each year more oil is poured in the Niger Delta region that spilled last year for BP in the Gulf of Mexico and made headlines for weeks. Only between 1970 and 2000 there were over 7,000 oil spills and there are still thousands of sites, to be cleaned, according to figures from the Nigerian government. Of these spills, over 1,000 are attributed to Shell (Eyo, 2012).

The company itself admitted in August two huge responsibility for discharges occurring in 2008, in the swamps of the Bodo area. Then, more than 300,000 barrels of oil polluted land and affected 69,000 people, according to local authorities. Also in August, a UN report said that adequately address the area of Ogoniland in Nigeria would be the largest petroleum waste cleanup in history and would cost about 1,000 million dollars. This report named Shell as one of the causes of the disaster in Ogoniland. Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), Europe's largest oil company, have confirmed the cause of which could lead to the largest in ten years oil spill ...