byYusuf Akinpelu
Between January 2019 and May 18, 2021, a total of 30 oil companies in Nigeria spilt 41,216 barrels of crude, data published by NOSDRA, a government-run satellite tracker, showed.
This is equivalent to 6.5 million litres of oil (at 159 litres to a barrel). The spills occurred in 846 cases of oil spillages in less than three years.
These companies drill for oil in the Niger Delta region of the country and pay production entitlements, taxes, royalties and other remittances to the Nigerian government.
Shell Petroleum Development Company (331), the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (196), Heritage Energy Operational Service Limited (40) are responsible for about 70 per cent of these cases.
The data changes quickly as new spills are reported, NOSDRA said. The quoted figure is as of May 18. NOSDRA only has records of the company-by-company breakdown for the past three years.
Seven of the companies accounted for over 90 per cent of the barrels of oil lost to the spills (37,245), which are blamed for environmental degradation and economic sabotage in the oil-producing communities.
They include Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Eroton Exploration and Production Limited (Eroton E&P), ND Western (NDWEST), Heritage Energy Operational Service Limited (Heritage), Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), and the National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of Nigerian public oil company, NNPC.
Energy giant Shell alone accounted for over 40 per cent of the total. In 331 incidents the company recorded in three years, 17,476 barrels (2.8 million litres) of oil were spilled.
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