UNEP Report: Shell Begins Clean Up Of Ogoniland

Barely three weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari restated the commitment of the Federal Government to implement recommendations of the United Nations Environment Programme report on Ogoniland, with specific measures already in place, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), has expressed excitement that the government was now determined more than ever before to implement all outstanding recommendations.
General Manager, External Relations, SPDC, Igo Weli, who expressed the firm’s position during a special training session for select bureau chiefs and editors in Rivers State at the Ernest Ikoli Press Centre, Port Harcourt, last Thursday, said that although SPDC has not produced oil or gas from any field in Ogoniland since 1993, the company has continued to invest in programmes to impact lives in the area in line with its corporate social responsibilities, just as it has taken initiatives to implement company-specific recommendations in the UNEP Report.
Weli stated that the UNEP report, published August 4, 2011, made recommendations to the government, the oil and gas industry, and communities, to begin a comprehensive clean-up of Ogoniland, restore polluted environments and put an end to all forms of on-going oil contamination in the region, and assured that SPDC was ready to partner government to implement recommendations requiring specific multi-stakeholder inputs.
According to him, “in a swift response, SPDC JV set up the Ogoni Restoration Project Team as a direct response to the UNEP report release, working with government on emergency measures and all actions directed at it”.
The general manager noted that “SPDC has initiated action to implement all the 22 actions directed to it by the UNEP report”, explaining that “16 recommended actions have been completed”.
He said that five actions are currently on-going, including relocation of Right-of-Way (RoW) encroachers; and decommissioning plan, adding that SPDC was set to release its contribution to the $1billion Ogoni Restoration Fund, once the Federal Government has perfected the set-up and made its contribution to the fund.
On remediation of impacted sites, Weli stressed that of the 470 incidents documented along SPDC JV RoW in Ogoniland, SPDC has remediated 368, while 32 are at various stages of completion, adding of the 70 outstanding, 40 are in Bodo area.
He explained that, “SPDC has completed the physical verification of assets in Ogoniland covering delivery and flowlines, manifolds, flow stations, compressor stations, gas plants and burrow pits.”
“Two weeks after the UNEP report was published, SPDC, in partnership with the Rivers State Government, immediately began work to provide 250,000 litres a day of potable water to those communities whose water was found to be contaminated. We also embarked on a project to construct permanent piped water distribution facilities. The Eleme Regional Water Supply Project, a 450,000 litre capacity facility with potential to serve an estimated 30,000 people a day, was completed and commissioned in August 2013,” he said.
“We conducted primary healthcare outreach to the communities through SPDC’s Health-In-Motion programme; and about 35,000 adults and 15,000 children benefitted from the outreach”, Weli said, adding that SPDC also engaged 105 Ogoni youth in LiveWIRE alternative livelihood programme; and provided start-up grants to the trainees, most of whom have started businesses.
He stated that the company has “championed grassroots environmental campaign in partnership with the Rivers State Ministry of Environment, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), and NGOs to deepen awareness on the ills of illegal bunkering and oil theft,” adding that since 2014, “12 town-hall sessions have been held across the four Ogoni local government areas yearly, with about 11,000 indigenes participating to date.
“SPDC welcomes the leadership shown by President Buhari in setting up governance structures for implementation of the UNEP report. We are greatly encouraged by the positive and constructive response from representatives of the community, Niger Delta NGOs and civil society. This is an important step forward and SPDC is determined to play its part in maintaining the momentum,” Weli said.
“However, as the UNEP report stated, treating the problem of environmental contamination within Ogoniland merely as a technical clean-up exercise will ultimately lead to failure. Ensuring long-term sustainability is a much bigger challenge – one that will require coordinated and collaborative action from all stakeholders.
“This must include putting an end to the widespread pipeline sabotage, crude oil theft and illegal refining that are the main causes of environmental damage in Ogoniland and the wider Niger Delta today. Shell Companies in Nigeria will continue to be at the forefront engaging interested stakeholders and seeking sustainable innovative ways to resolve the problem,” he added.
The Tide recalls that SPDC began exploration and production operations in Ogoniland in the 1950s, suspended operations in 1993 following a rise in violence, threats to staff and attacks on facilities, and has not produced oil or gas in Ogoniland since then.
One of SPDC’s main pipelines in the Niger Delta – the Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP) – traverses Ogoniland, where it also has five non-producing fields and a network of about 100 wells and associated infrastructure.
In 2007, the Federal Government commissioned the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to carry out an environmental assessment of Ogoniland as part of a wider reconciliation process, but implementation of the full recommendations directed at government have yet to commence, four years after, leaving most Ogoni stakeholders agitated.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana

L-R:Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, Deputy Governor, Dr Ipalibo Banigo, National Chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus and Rivers State Speaker of House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Ikunyi Owaji Ibani, singing praises during the interdenominational church service to mark Governor Wike’s 100 days in office at Obi Wali International Conference Centre, Port Harcourt, yesterday.