The Federal Government directed AITEO Eastern Exploration and Production Company Ltd (AEEPCo), to stop operating in the Nembe oil spill area of Bayelsa State until a proper investigation is carried out.
This was disclosed on Tuesday in a statement by Mr Saghir el Mohammed, Press Director, Ministry of Environment, in Abuja.
The statement added that adequate measures need to be put in place to ensure the safety of lives and property, at the site of the spill at Santa Barbara in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa state.
What the FG said
“The Federal Government has directed the exploration company, AITEO Eastern Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCo), to halt operations in the area until proper investigation is carried out.
“Also, adequate measures will be put in place to ensure the safety of lives and property in the area.
“It can be recalled that the spill occurred on Nov. 5, 2021, in a form of fountain within the proximity of Opu Nembe Community at Well 1, Wellhead located at the Southern Field of Sant Barbara.
“Upon receipt of the report of the incident, a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), was set up.
“Also, the state Ministry of Environment, Community representatives and Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company was set up on Nov. 6, 2021 to immediately address the situation.
“The exercise was inclusive because of inaccessibility to the wellhead location due to the hydrocarbon fumes that saturated the atmosphere in the area.
“Consequently, the JIT directed AEEPCo to shut down in the impacted asset (wellhead) for appropriate oil spill response,” the FG said.
They added that as at Nov. 10, 2021, efforts to shutdown the well proved difficult due to inaccessibility, citing that in an effort to safeguard the environment and livelihood, staff from the NOSDRA’s Yenagoa Field Office were deployed to the site to monitor and give progress reports on the measures being taken to address the issue.
“There is further directives to AEEPCo to engage all relevant stakeholders in the spilled oil recovery process.
“In this vein, 3,000 barrels of emulsified crude oil have been recovered and held in a recovery barge,” they stated.
They explained that additional booms were deployed by the Clean Nigeria Association (CNA) System to work with the on-site recovery contractor, as containment and recovery are still ongoing. It is instructive to note that the wellhead experts have arrived in Nigeria and will commence work on killing the well.
However, in order to ensure safety and guarantee future operations in the area by AEEPCo, NOSDRA has mandated the company to carry out concrete actions. They said the action is to address the situation that includes clean-up of impacted areas, remediation of spill site as well as damage assessment and post-spill impact assessment.
What you should know
Nairametrics reported earlier that Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company has revealed that it is mobilising technical expertise both locally and internationally to contain the spill at OML 29 in Nembe, Bayelsa State. The company also added that an investigation will commence to determine the cause of the spill.
Meanwhile, Andrew Oru, Director, Asset production at Aiteo said the particular well has about 85% gas and just about 15% crude. While speaking in an interview on ChannelsT. Oru said that all efforts are being made to contain the incident.
