Niger Delta
Group Tasks Oil Firms On Gas Flare, Oil Spills
An NGO, the Network for Safe and Secure Environment (NESE), has renewed the call for oil companies to accept responsibility for the negative impact of their operations on the environment.
Mr Bob Okon, the Programme Director of the organisation based in Eket, Akwa Ibom, made the call in an interview with newsmen in Eket.
He said oil companies were not environment friendly, as oil- bearing communities were exposed to the negative effects of oil exploitation because there were no projects in such areas to protect the environment.
Okon said oil spills and gas flare were the most unfriendly acts to the environment perpetrated by the oil industry.
“NESE has noted with dismay the lip service paid by oil industry stakeholders to environmental matters in our neighbourhood.
“The oil companies neglect the environment in the discharge of their corporate social responsibility and community development programmes.
“It is unfortunate that even when the National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) instructed Mobil to clean up the recent spill, the company still remained adamant.
“They expose the environment and community to pollution from crude oil. We urge NOSDRA to wield the big stick and sanction Mobil to send the right signal to other oil firms,” Okon said.
He said Mobil’s host community in Ibeno, also in Akwa Ibom, had sustained oil operations for more than 40 years without any conservation efforts.
According to him, oil spill clean-up without remediation work is incomplete.
“Most times the funds set aside for the environment do not benefit the environment; rather the people benefit from it and they do not give back anything to the goose that lays the golden egg.
“When oil spill compensation is paid, the people take the money and it ends in their pockets,” he said.
The NGO also said that oil companies operating in Akwa Ibom should undertake conservation projects and remediation work to restore the environment to its natural state.
Mobil Producing Nigeria, Total Exploration & Production, Addax Petroleum and Afren Energy, an indigenous oil firm, operate offshore Akwa Ibom coastline.
The NGO said that statistics from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation showed that Mobil Producing Nigeria flared 40.98 billion standard cubic feet (BSCF) of its total gas production of 116.65 BSCF.
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