After initial disagreements between Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, and its host community, the oil firm has commenced the recovery of spilled crude from its Adibawa oil fields.
The traditional ruler of Edagberi community in Rivers State, Sunny Jacob Ubele, said on Thursday that the oil recovery exercise commenced on Tuesday after the resolution of a faceoff between the officials of company and the chairman of Ahoada West Local Government in Rivers.
Ubele denied allegations that the community tried to frustrate the exercise, maintaining that the people fully cooperated with officials of the oil firm.
Rather, he said, it was officials of Shell who attempted to manipulate the Joint Investigation Visit, JIV, procedure.
“It is very untrue that we denied them access, if we did how did they managed to stop the spill,” he stated.
“They had fixed a JIV on our meeting day and we told them to fix it for the next day.
“When we go there with them we found out they went to the site unilaterally and tampered with the evidences that would assist in arriving at conclusions, so we told them that we were excluded from that exercise,” he explained.
He said further: “We pointed out to them what they did and we declined to sign the JIV reports because we were not part of it. Therefore, the JIV was inconclusive.
“There is no truth in the allegations, today the council of chief met and restated that they should commence recovery of crude from the site.”
In the meantime Shell has explained that the oil leakage was caused by thieves who targeted the well head.
The company expressed regret at the delay in conducting investigation about the leak at Adibawa- well-8 in the Eastern Niger Delta, where a suspected attempt to steal the wellhead led to a spill.
But in a statement signed by one of its spokesmen, Joseph Obari, the oil firm insisted that members of the host community were thwarting efforts to contain the leakage and remediate the polluted environment.
“Following a reported spill at Adibawa- well-8 in the Eastern Niger Delta reported July 12, the statutory Joint Investigation Visit remains delayed.
“The Caretaker Committee Chairman of Ahoada West Local Government, Ikechukwu Obuzor, is leading mediation after the leadership of the Edagberi Betterland community prevented the representatives of industry regulatory agencies, the Rivers State Ministry of Environment and SPDC from accessing the spill site,” the company alleged in the statement.
Shell said further that even after a seeming agreement last week by the leadership of Edagberi Betterland community for oil recovery to commence, “a group of youths demanding payment of money and employment refused SPDC Oil Spill Response team access to the site.”
It stated that the leak was stopped on July 15, but attempts to conduct the statutory Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) on July 16 and 17 to determine the cause and extent of the leak were unsuccessful.