UN slams Shell for Nigeria pollution

[wautd]

You thought the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was bad?

Abuja - A United Nations report has criticised Shell and the Nigerian government for contributing to 50 years of pollution in a region of the Niger Delta which it says needs the world's largest ever oil clean-up, costing an initial $1-billion and taking up to 30 years.

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) analysed the damage oil pollution has done in Ogoniland, a region in the oil-rich labyrinthine creeks, swamps and waterways of the Niger Delta, the heartland of Africa's largest oil and gas industry.

Royal Dutch Shell and the Nigerian state-oil firm own most of the oil infrastructure in Ogoniland, although the Anglo-Dutch giant was forced out of operating in the region by communities in 1993 who said it caused pollution that destroyed their fishing environment.

Shell stopped pumping oil from Ogoniland after a campaign led by writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was later hanged by the Nigerian military government, provoking international outrage.

“The environmental restoration of Ogoniland could prove to be the world's most wide-ranging and long term oil clean-up exercise ever undertaken,” a UNEP report released on Thursday said.

“Control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure in Ogoniland has been and remains inadequate: the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) own procedures have not been applied, creating public health and safety issues.”

The UNEP report said 10 out of the 15 investigated sites which SPDC said they had completely remediated still had pollution exceeding the SPDC and government remediation values.

Shell, which on Wednesday agreed that an Ogoni community could seek compensation for oil spills in a British court, says most oil spills in the Niger Delta are caused by oil theft and sabotage attacks but says it cleans up whatever the cause.

“Oil spills in the Niger Delta are a tragedy, and SPDC takes them very seriously,” Mutiu Sunmonu, SPDC's Managing Director, said in a statement on its website.

“Concerted effort is needed on the part of the Nigerian government, working with oil companies and others, to end the blight of illegal refining and oil theft in the Niger Delta . This is the major cause of the environmental damage.”

A spokesperson for the company said it welcomed the report and would comment further after studying the details.

UNEP said Ogoniland communities are exposed to hydrocarbons every day as thick black oil floats around the creeks, while the impact on vegetation and fishing areas has been “disastrous”.

In one community, drinking water was contaminated with benzene, a substance known to cause cancer, at levels over 900 times above the World Health Organisation guidelines. The site was close to a pipeline owned by Nigeria's state-oil firm NNPC, the report said.

“We will undertake any clean-up. It doesn't mean we are culpable. Pipeline vandalism, by the very communities who are affected, is the major issue,” an NNPC spokesperson said. He said he had not read the report.

While Shell does not operate in Ogoniland anymore, its pipelines and other infrastructure remain and still suffer spillages and sabotage attacks.

UNEP's report is the most detailed scientific study on any area in the Niger Delta, UNEP and rights groups said. It was paid for partly by Shell after a request by the government. - Reuters

[KhorneFlakes]

To best honest, I'm not really suprised by this.

[Temujin]

The only thing that surprises me is that it took so long; but then again maybe not, as after all this is Africa and hence not considered as important as other parts of the world.

This really should have come years ago.

[Traveller]

Shell will never clean up its mess in the Niger. The disaster down there has been decades in the makeing. It will only end whent he fossil-fuels are exhausted, and when that happens, then the misery for nigera will really begin. Imagine an allready poor, unstable, nation that has lost 90% of its revenue stream, and has a pollution problem that beggers the imagination. There will be no resources, human or otherwise to repair the damage, and that may well be impossible even if resources were allocated to the task(which they wont) The Nigerian gov't is basically a wholly owned subsidary of Royal Dutch Shell. 90% of the countries budget comes from oil-revenue. Oil companies leave only destruction and misery behind.


This is an interesting claim

Q/“Concerted effort is needed on the part of the Nigerian government, working with oil companies and others, to end the blight of illegal refining and oil theft in the Niger Delta . This is the major cause of the environmental damage.”

Acually Shell is the major(sole) cause of the damage. In truth, government officials, generals and such in Nigeria are responsible for most of the bunkering going on there.

[Alerik the Fortunate]

I've known about this for a few years, but I don't really see a solution. While the north and south of Nigeria squabble over oil revenue rights, it will always be cheaper for foreign corporations to bargain with local strong men to get land rights and look the other way when safety corners are cut than to shoulder the full financial responsibility of cleaning up their own mess. And I'm quite sure that many in the first world would actively oppose any measure to force responsibility if it resulted in a price hike for crude that affected them at the gas station.