… As Sylva says Attacks on oil, gas facilities drop from 623 to 94 in 7 years***
The Minister of Environment, Dr Mohammad Abubakar, on Monday, disclosed that Nigeria suffered 4,919 oil spills between 2015 to March 2021 and lost 4.5 trillion barrels of oil to theft in four years.
Abubakar disclosed this at a Town Hall meeting in Abuja, organised by the Ministry of Information and Culture, on protecting oil and gas infrastructure.
“According to the National Oil Spill Detection Agency (NOSDRA) data, the total number of oil spills recorded from 2015 to March 2021 is 4,919, the number of oil spills cost by collation is 308.
“The operational maintenance is 106, while sabotage is 3,628 and yet to be determined 70, giving the total number of oil spills on the environment to 235,206 barrels of oil.
This is very colossal to the environment.
“Nigeria also lost approximately 4.75 trillion on oil activities in the four years between 2015 and 2018, as estimated by the Nigeria Natural Resources Charter.
“Several statistics have emphasised Nigeria as the most notorious country in the world for oil spills, losing roughly 400,000 barrels per day.
“The second country is followed by Mexico that has reported only 5,000 to 10,000 barrel only per day, thus a difference of about 3, 900 per cent.
“Now the environmental effect, which is the major concern of the ministry of environment, is in the loss of revenue.
“Attack on oil facilities has become the innovation that replaced agitations in the Niger Delta region against perceived poor governance and neglect of the area.
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“The impacts of vandalism of oil facilities have not only caused pollution of the environment, but had consequences on the local people, the national economy and security,’’ he said.
Abubakar added that the activities that come with oil exploration and exploitation had similarly caused alterations to the environment and some of its effects had either been reduced or prevented.
The minister added that adequate mitigation measures had been taken, including enforcement of relevant laws, regulations and guidelines, such as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Act.
He said the EIA process ensured that measures were put in place to assist in the reduction of the negative effects and enhancement of the positive effects on the ecology, health and social wellbeing of communities in project areas.
“It is in the light of this fact that over 1,300 oil and gas projects in Nigeria have been subjected to EIA process under the supervision of the ministry’’.
Abubakar further added that the ministry held periodic interactive sessions with oil and gas operators, focused on the continued degradation of the environment, fatalities and loss of revenue, attributable to the regular and incessant vandalism of oil facilities, particularly pipelines.
The minister stressed that the effects of the destruction of oil and gas facilities had caused huge economic losses from pipelines to plant shut downs, as well as loss of biodiversity, habitat and ecological damage.
In addition, the destruction had also caused degradation of soil quality, which drastically reduces soil fertility, thereby, affecting crop yields and food security.
“Also, increase in air pollution and the attendant climate change issues, public health impacts on affected communities, social impacts and loss of livelihood, supremacy among militants, casualties, among others,’’ he said.
Oil pipeline vandalism over the years had been one of the major factors contributing significantly to environmental degradation in the Niger Delta region, which accounts for about 70 to 80 per cent of our oil and gas sector that drives the economy, the minister noted.
He added that the country’s oil and gas production accounts for a great deal of upstream and downstream industrial activities and production frontiers were increasingly moving into deep sea operations.
Similarly, the oil sector accounts for over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s total foreign exchange earnings with the bulk of it coming from the numerous producing fields, located on the land, swamp and offshore environment of the Niger Delta region, Abubakar also noted.
He, therefore, recommended increasing awareness creation on the negative consequences of vandalism of oil facilities and other illegal activities.
Such awareness should also be accompanied by increased sustainable community development programmes for host oil communities, to include skills acquisition, provision of infrastructure and basic amenities, among others, by oil companies and relevant government agencies, Abubakar said.
In the meantime however, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Mr Timipreye Sylva, on Monday declared that attacks on oil and gas facilities across the country had reduced significantly since 2014.
The minister made the declaration at a Town Hall meeting on Protecting Oil and Gas Infrastructure in Abuja, on Monday.
Sylva, who was represented by Mr Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), identified the main reasons why increasing production remained challenging.
“First is under investment, you may genuinely not be able to put your money into it and secondly, you may have the money and not be able to due to activities of vandals, which can actually stop you from increasing your production.
“This is a challenge in our environment. However, I can confirm to you that it is not all bad news, because from 2015 to today, we have a calmer Niger Delta.
“We have far less issues on vandals action on our facilities than our access; that means the impact of attacks on our facilities has significantly reduced,” he said.
Sylva stressed that this did not happen suddenly, but were the outcomes of a number of engagements both at national and sub national levels, including with members of the Armed Forces.
He said there were significant collaborations among the agencies of government and security outfits in the country that helped in checking the activities of vandals.
Sylva further identified two types of vandals – those who are genuinely aggrieved and seen to be in activism and those who do it for the purpose of stealing – both of whom constituted a national problem.
“In 2014, we have 623 attacks on our pipelines; today in 2021, we only have 94 attacks.
“Once there are attacks on our facilities, it pollutes the environment, create new set of problems for us and we stop worrying about revenue and worry about the environment.
“This is because some of them are innocent and can’t find clean water to drink and can’t go to their farms.
“The issue of attacks on oil and gas facilities is a concern to all of us because it affects all of us and we can do something by communicating appropriately,” Sylva said.