Advocacy group condemns week-long crude oil spill at Eroton’s OML 18
Oredola Adeola
Youth and Environmental Advocacy has condemned the oil spillage in a facility owned and operated by Nigerian firm, Eroton Exploration and Production Limited which has been spilling into the Niger Delta environment in Bayelsa State for almost a week.
EnergyDay gathered that the affected indigenous company produces and exports crude from its Oil Mining Lease 18 block through the Nembe Creek Trunkline connecting Bonny Oil Terminal, Nigeria.
This latest incident is the second longest spill ever witnessed in the creek after a similar incident lasted for a month in Aiteo Group’s facility in 2021.
Youth and Environmental Advocacy in a statement obtained by EnergyDay said that the Eroton’s incessant oil spill has affected the ecosystem and livelihoods destruction.
The group called on the relevant agencies to immediately clamp down on the facility and also get the company to commence clean-up.
Idris Musa, head of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency had earlier in a statement on Sunday, said Eroton had reported the spill to authorities, blaming it on a leak from a wellhead.
Eroton in a statement also claimed that the incident started on June 15, adding that preliminary findings showed that the spill was caused by activities of vandals.
The company further noted the wellhead platform had been removed, making it difficult to gain access to the well.
“Our team of well engineers are working with contractors and evaluating the safest procedure that will be required to bring the well under control,” the company said.
The company however did not give further details of the volumes of crude oil produced from the well.
EnergyDay discovered that the facility is part of assets that Eroton bought in 2015 from oil major Shell, after the multinational oil company divested from its onshore assets to focus on offshore exploration.
Last year, a nearby well run by Aiteo Eastern E&P Company oil spill in Oil Mining Lease, OML 29, spilled oil on November 5, 2021 and the incident was uncontrollable for more than a month, polluting the entire Delta creeks thus affecting fishing in the area.
