An environment focused non-governmental organization, NGO, the Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN, has alerted the authorities to an oil leakage at an oil field operated by the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, NAOC, in Bayelsa.

In a field report released to the media over the weekend, the group stated that the incident, which occurred on March 5 at Ondewari and Okpotuwari, in Southern Ijaw local government area of Bayelsa State, was due to negligence by the oil firm.

ERA/FoEN said that a similar oil leak was recoded at the same location in December, 2015 due to equipment failure and that when its officials conducted a visit to the site on April 9 , 2016  they discovered that the recent spill had discharged over 500 barrels of crude oil into the environment.

According to the report, signed by Alagoa Morris, Head of Operations at ERA/FoEN in Bayelsa, the March spill occurred because Agip re-opened the flow line with pressure from the Ogboinbiri flow station.

“This is a first-party spill caused by the owner of the facility. Community folks alleged that this happened while a repair was on-going.

“However, it could also have resulted when the pipe was cut open during repairs and some of the volume of crude oil on the pipeline rushed out.

“And, after Agip noticed the error committed, the company quickly dug some big pits in the environment to contain the spilt crude oil.

”When the community knew about the development and confronted Agip, the company official first tried to deny until some officials of the regulatory agencies waded in”, ERA/FoEN said.

The group noted that that spilt crude was being mopped and transferred into big plastic tanks and pumped into a barge stationed near the Ossiama Creek.

“An estimated volume of 500 barrels was so spilt due to an act of negligence”, it added.

The report also indicated that the oil spill occurred after a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) had been concluded on the December 2015 incident.

“That spill of December 2015 was as a result of equipment failure and occurred on the pipeline as indicated on the JIV report and photo evidence. The volume of spilt crude was put at three barrels”, it stated.