Nembe oil spill: Arewa youths accuse Diri of targeting Buhari

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Northern socio-political group, the Arewa Consultative Youth Movement, has chided the some Niger Delta groups for exaggerating the scale of oil spill arising from the unfortunate wellhead bow out at the Santa Barbara oil field in Nembe, Bayelsa State.

The group led by Mallam Kabiru Yusuf alleges a conspiracy to sabotage and rubbish both image and efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration at reorganizing and reforming the petroleum industry.

The group stated in a release that President Buhari’s efforts in the oil and gas sector “are being serially undermined by some forces whose motives are diabolical.”

It pointed out that some forces in the Niger Delta are exaggerating the impact of the Nembe Creek oil spill “to undermine the federal administration and allege both lack of capacity and incompetence by the Buhari government in a major area of the country’s economy.”

“They have already imputed that federal government officials are compromised on the issue,” Mallam Yusuf stated.

Operator of the Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29, Aiteo Exploration and Production Company Limited (AEEPCO), had on November 5 reported significant leak from Well 1 platform blowout in its Santa Barbara South field, in Nembe, Bayelsa State.

The company declared in a statement that the incident led to spill of crude oil and other hydrocarbon liquids into the immediate water bodies and contiguous communities. It also reported strong hydrocarbon fumes in the air.

The incident has since stirred massive complaints, agitations and campaigns by several interest groups in Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta; castigating the operating company and the federal government for the spill the cause of which is attributed to unauthorized third party interference.

President of the ACYM, Mallam Kabiru Yusuf, who is also the convener of Association of Northern Youth Groups, in a statement released from Arewa House, Kaduna State, alleged that a perceived politicization of the mishap is meant to discredit the government of President Muhammadu Buhari as irresponsible.

The Oracle Today reports that indigenous oil firm, Aiteo, which operates a joint venture with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had reported the leak was from a dormant well.

The company has since notified regulators and also activated pan-industry Tier-3 incident response mechanism coordinated by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) for containment, clean up and remediation.

Aiteo has also mobilized joint investigation team comprising regulatory agencies and safety experts to ascertain the cause and scale of the damage to the spilling well and recommend response measures.

Also given the urgent need to remotely kill the well, Aiteo enlisted the services of Boots & Coots, one of the world’s leading wild well control contractors, to assist local peers in executing a highly technical well kill process that would ultimately shut off flow from the well. However, the process involves mobilizing rigs to a proximate site and targeting the wild well with a horizontal directional drilling programme. Every static kill during a well intervention takes some time to be carefully executed in order not to miss the target.

Aiteo stated in its several updates on the incident that indications were clear that the well blowout resulted from activities of crude oil thieves that thrive on stolen feedstock for illegal refineries that currently plague some Niger Delta cities with black sooth.

Checks by The Oracle Today show that spill containment and oil recovery are ongoing while plant for well also runs in parallel.

In a separate measure, Aiteo stated that it has engaged the host communities on the incident and has been providing them with relief materials, medicals and drinking water on regular basis in a move to palliate the impact of the incident on the wellbeing of the local people.

According to the oil company, “Aiteo Officials are closely monitoring all activities related to the affected communities, viz. feeding, lighting, hygiene, drinking water and medical requirements with the help of local associations.”   

Further, “Aiteo Safety and security and HSE teams are monitoring the quality of air every six hours to ascertain the livability of the areas adjoining ground zero. Aiteo is mobilizing additional relief materials for the affected communities.”           

The Presidency and relevant agencies, on their parts, have responded admirably in providing for guidance and support towards the efforts being deployed containing spill as well as providing stability.

As the operator of the joint venture, all the measures taken by Aiteo are in conjunction and on behalf of the NNPC which represents government’s commercial interests in the operation of the petroleum industry.

But in a recent visit to the spill site, Governor Duoye Diri of Bayelsa state had criticized the operator and the federal government for slow response to the incident, promising to provide the community with additional relief materials.

Several community and youth groups in the state have also lent their voice in support of the governor’s position that federal government and operator of the joint venture should take responsibility for the losses associated with the incident.

Mallam Yusuf pointed out in his observations that petroleum exploration and production remains vulnerable to incidents as the Nembe Creek blowout; stressing that whereas collaboration in a well coordinated response is needed at this point to arrest the leaks and associated impact on the environment, “the most unwelcome distraction in the serious business of incident and crisis management is irresponsible politicization of difficult and highly technical issues by entities or persons with poor or no understanding of the key issues.”

“In doing so, these unwelcome and ill-informed distractions create nothing but divisions where none exist,” Mallam Yusuf warned.

He stressed that “the recent Nembe oil wellhead blowout and spillage incident are a prime example of how genuine and expert interventions already deployed should not be politicized, discredited, or hobbled by hostile fringe industry interests.”      

Mallam Yusuf pointed out that Aiteo has not in any way failed to taking the right and speedy technical containment measures by quickly inviting “highly competent foreign based technical experts  with experience of managing emergencies of this nature to help arrest the situation.”

He noted that the spill situation was time-sensitive and rightly so, adding that Aiteo has also fully deployed measures to contain the leak, “including an effective fast-track spill recovery programme.”

“In addition to this has been high level, community targeted community-targeted measures that has been providing provide relief and health related support to those immediately affected,” Mallam Yusuf pointed out, wondering why “several forces have equally deployed their armaments to smear and damage not only the image of Aiteo, but it is quite considerable efforts.”

“From peddling specious information that the spill has led to losses in excess off two million barrels, some have alleged that over 500,000 barrels were spilled, while some have suggested figure stupendous loss of some 200,000 daily.

According to the Director General/Chief Executive Officer, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Idris Musa, who spoke last week on a national TV show, “It is absolutely wrong and preposterous for people to make false speculations over the oil spillage in Nembe communities of Bayelsa State.”           

Also, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, had during a visit to the spill site attested to the work being done to contain the spill and pledged support to the company’s efforts. 

Credible information confirms that before its shut-down prior to 2015, the well produced about producing 700 barrels daily.

Mallam Yusuf lamented: “This wretched attack is, quite simply, a disgracefully organized conspiracy to put down Aiteo. Despite efforts by Aiteo to professionally contain the spill in Nembe, some see this incident as an opportunity to attack the company. Some interests are even, curiously, putting out old spill videos to create a negative false impression of the extent incident.

“It certainly cannot be overstressed that what is playing out appears like well-choreographed intrigue at work to undermine Aiteo and besmirch ongoing efforts to contain the leak and mitigate the impact on communities around the location of the well. First was the exaggeration of massive oil spill, which some compared to Hiroshima Atomic Bomb catastrophe. Comparing the Nembe oil spill to the Hiroshima, is taking mischief to a dangerous level. Worse, it betrays crass ignorance.    

“Clearly, it is scandalous to liken it to Hiroshima. Except one has a very bad motive –there can be no purpose to such a destructive allegation.   Not surprisingly, after putting out this narrative, these same hostile forces of divisiveness who apparently have an axe to grind with Nigeria’s biggest indigenous oil company started circulating old spill videos to fuel to their plot and set the communities against the company. By circulating false videos to various social media platforms, they have sought to create the impression that there has been massive environmental damage to the ecosystem.    

“Even Governor Douye Diri of Bayelsa State who is not a petroleum engineer has demonstrated a disturbing disposition to his contributions to the public discussions by misguidedly alleging impossible scenarios. Douye Diri is a 1990 Bachelor of Education and Political Science graduate from the University of Port Harcourt with no previous knowledge, experience, or involvement in either oil production or the environment.  Yet he has manfully opined that the Nembe spill is worse than the Gulf of Mexico spill. From a person in authority of such elevation, this is extreme misinformation stemming from willful ignorance or dark motive.           

“To place matters in context, the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico is considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8 to 31 percent larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I Oil Spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. Comparisons between the two or three scenarios with the Nembe incident bespeak nothing short of a wicked, mischievous conspiracy,” Mallam Yusuf stated.

He accused Governor Diri of trying to score some cheap points from a serious incident. He said the governor had failed to cut short his vacation in London when federal government officials thronged his state in response to the spill.

When he belatedly returned, his major contribution was to offer threats and his absurdly twisted comparison of the incident with the Gulf of Mexico spill.

“Why now does he pretend to care for the impacted communities when he failed to demonstrate leadership early enough as the news of the spill was first reported by Aiteo?” Mallam Yusuf asked.           

He wondered what benefits complicating the spill disaster and distracting genuine incident mitigation efforts would afford the governor.

“Granted it is within his legitimate rights to protect his citizens, but this must align with the scientific templates of managing spills as obtains elsewhere in the industry,” Mallam Yusuf pointed out.

“Instead of acknowledging that Aiteo is working with government officials to clean up the spill and bring the situation under control as should be expected, these diabolical agents are very willing to cast aspersions on the integrity of these officials in furtherance of their dangerous obsession with Aiteo founder Benedict Peters,” the group stated.

It also pointed out that the ongoing politicization of the spill is targeted at hampering the cleanup efforts at the spill site and destroying the hard earned reputation of Aiteo as operating company.

“The hydrocarbon industry, with its peculiar hazards, remains very important to human civilization. When incidents like this occur, they must be professionally managed as is being done currently and not dangerously politicized or mischaracterized by forces with dark motives,” Mallam Yusuf declared.