The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) has said that the oil spill which occurred on the 3rd July, 2023 in Bayelsa State was immediately reported to the relevant authorities for appropriate actions.
Nigerian Agip Oil Company said it notified the three related agencies of government for such an incident and the state ministry of environment and the host community.
In a terse statement by Deputy Manager, Government and Institutional Relations Manager, Folu Olapade said the NOAC was committed to facility asset integrity and always intervenes to remediate spills.
The statement reads: “With respect to the event reported on 3rd July 2023, an oil spill occurred in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State along the 24’’ Ogoda/Brass pipeline belonging to NEPL/NAOC/OOL Joint Venture, operated by NAOC.
“The regulatory agencies (Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA) were immediately notified while a Joint Inspection Visit (JIV) together with the regulatory agencies, the representatives of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment and the host community was carried out.
“NAOC immediately deployed measures to clean and contain the spread of the oil, including placement of river booms. The leakage is contained by the existing cofferdam and is under reparation.
“NAOC is strongly committed to asset integrity as well as environmental protection and always intervenes to remediate spills, be them operational or due to third parties interferences.
According to the Petroleum Industry Act, (PIA) 2021, the host community has a role in cases of oil spill for the remediation by establishing a trust funds which would draw revenue from the 3% of the annual operating expenditure.
Section 240 reads in part: “Each settlor, where applicable through the operator, shall make an annual contribution to the applicable host communities development trust fund of an amount equal to 3% of its actual annual operating expenditure of the preceding financial year in the upstream petroleum operations affecting the host communities for which the applicable host communities development trust fund was established.
“Each host communities development trust may receive donations, gifts, grants or honoraria that are provided to such host communities development trust for the attainment of its objectives.”
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