Community Watch of Nigeria, an Eket, Akwa Ibom based Non Government Organisation (NGO), says the November 9 oil spill from Qua Iboe oil fields had affected coastal communities in the state adversely .

 The President of the NGO Chief Samingo Etukapkan, told newsmen  in Eket that the spill had crippled economic activities amongst the fishing settlements.

Etukapkan regretted that since the spill more than two weeks now, no relief has been sent to thousands of fishermen who were abruptly forced out of the Atlantic by the incident.

He described the spill as massive and dismissed the estimated volume of 200 barrels as a ploy by the management of the oil firm to minimise its liabilities.

“It has come to our knowledge that Mobil has put the estimate of crude oil spilled from its pipeline in the spill as low as 200 barrels but what we have seen at the coastline during our own checks, points to the contrary. If you take the size of the said pipeline which has a diameter of 24 inches, the pressure on the pipeline and the time it took them to notice the spill and shut the pipeline you will conclude that the volume they are claiming is unrealistic, he said.

He said if you pour 200 barrels of crude into the Atlantic Ocean at Idoho platform you cannot find any trace of it at the shoreline 20 kilometres away.

Pointing out that from the intensity of crude deposits at the coastline, we think that the volume of crude cannot be less than 10,000 barrels and we urged the oil industry regulators to do a thorough job and give us an exact figure.

In a response statement signed by Paul Arinze, the General Manager, Government and Public Affairs, Mobil Producing Nigeria, the oil firm said that the 200 barrels were a preliminary estimate for planning purposes.

Arinze said that an investigation into the cause of the release was ongoing, adding that the initial figure was an early volume estimate required to support planning of response efforts.

“An investigation into the cause of the release is ongoing. ‘’A preliminary estimate of approximately two hundred (200) barrels of oil has been provided to the regulatory authorities.

“An early volume estimate is required to support planning of response efforts and once the incident investigation is complete, the volume released will be updated’’, the oil firm stated.

It would be recalled that Mobil had deployed some 500 workers for the mop up exercise at the Atlantic coastline while dispersants and heavy equipment were being used to combat the oil discharge at the offshore platform 20 kilometers off the coast.