Multinational oil companies such as Shell, Chevron, Eni, Total, Addax-Sinopec and Exxon Mobil, and the state owned NNPC continue to flare gas 24 hours a day, seven days a week, causing environmental damage as well as health and human rights impacts for local residents. Shell has flared gas for over five decades and according to official statistics, is still among the worst offenders, along with Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and Eni. 

Platform gave its analysis of flaring trends to IRIN. The IRIN report also quotes Nnimmo Bassey from Environmental Rights Action / Friends of the Earth Nigeria and Shell official Tony Attah, who blames the problem on militancy and claims that gas flaring will “take a few more years to end”.

NIGERIA: Gas flares still a burning issue in the Niger Delta

DAKAR/PORT HARCOURT, 8 March 2012 (IRIN) -

Despite longstanding laws against gas flaring – the burning of natural gas during oil extraction – in Nigeria, and shifting deadlines to end the practice, the activity continues, with serious health consequences for people living nearby.

In the Niger Delta, where most of the flaring takes places, residents living near gas flares complain of respiratory problems, skin rashes and eye irritations, as well as damage to agriculture due to acid rain.

They are also forced to live with constant noise, heat and light that can lead to sleep deprivation which can degenerate into systemic insomnia. Since flaring involves carbon dioxide and sulphur outputs, in the longer term the heart and lungs can be affected leading to bronchitis, silicosis, sulphur poisoning of the blood, and cardiac complications, said a Port Harcourt doctor, Nabbs Imegwu.

“Extreme long-term exposure can predispose one to, or cause, skin cancer,” he added.

Continue reading here.

According to reports in This Day, it could take 30 days before Chevron drills a relief well to put out the fire. In this video, Chevron Nigeria’s Executive Director Supo Shadiya refuses to provide even an estimate of when the disaster will end:

“I can’t give you a guess as to when we will be able to put out the fire.”

Chevron’s casual attitude towards the ecological impact of the disaster has been widely criticised. Chevron has dismissed local environmental concerns:

“There’s no known scientific basis to really talk about damage to the environment.”

However, the dead fish washing up on the nearby beach is one indication of a potentially serious environmental impact from the explosion and fire. Locals also report that 82 people have been poisoned from eating contaminated fish. There is an urgent need for independent and transparent monitoring of the disaster.

Chevron says it is providing “food” to the local community in Bayelsa State. Yet this is a poor substitute for proper environmental management and mitigation measures.

Photos courtesy of Morris Alagoa at ERA/FoE Nigeria.

The rig has now completely collapsed under the intense heat of the flames. Chevron is still “finalizing plans for a relief well to fight the fire”. But these pictures show no sign of the company’s efforts to monitor the impact of the fire or protect local fishers.

The local community, which relies on fishing as a primary means of livelihood, has drawn attention to the ecological impact of the disaster. Below is a deformed dead fish observed near the site.

The company has so far dismissed the impact on local livelihoods, claiming that “no impacts to the beach have been reported.” However, the disaster appears to be having devastating consequences for marine life. As ERA reports from the Koluama River:

“There were dead fish floating and some in throes of death; struggling to stay alive.”

Chevron has been criticised for its lack of transparency over the incident. Locals have been kept in the dark about Chevron’s emergency response plan, the risk to the local population and any information about efforts to control the fire and limit the environmental damage. Chevron has also been silent about what the worst case scenario and what this means for its stakeholders.

Reuters reports that:

Local people reported a loud explosion on the rig early on Monday. “I heard a really loud bang and there was a fire,” local village chief Young Fabby, 55, said by telephone.

A statement from civil society groups, NAGCOND (National Coalition on Gas Flaring and Oil Spills in the Niger Delta), demanded greater transparency from Chevron and an immediate response from the Nigerian government:

NACGOND is shocked by the news of the blowout and fire on the KV Endeavour, and is worried by the sheer frequency of these incidents within the oil industry in the Niger Delta. We extend our condolences to the colleagues and family members of those injured or missing.

We are aware that this is already a major incident with potential for disastrous impacts on the local environment, ecology and livelihoods of communities in the region.

We call on Chevron to immediately release all information that it has on the present situation and likely developments in coming days.

We call on the Federal Government to make an immediate assessment of the situation, and to mount a vigorous response to attenuate the consequences of the fire. If the situation is as grave as we fear it is, then we ask that government should work with both Chevron and, if necessary, the international community to mobilize an effective response.

We urge both Chevron and the FG to immediately inform communities living in close proximity to the site, and in the region of the actual situation and also afford them a realistic assessment of the risk that this incident poses moving forward.

The incident is just the latest in a long run of major offshore oil spills in Nigeria by Shell, Chevron and Exxon Mobil. Last month, a ruptured pipeline at Shell’s Bonga platform spilled an estimated 40,000 barrels into the sea and threatened the livelihoods of dozens of local fishing communities. Oil companies have a legacy of over 55 years of environmental devastation onshore in the Niger Delta. Chevron is one the largest oil operators in Nigeria, producing an estimated 524,000 barrels per day in 2010, second only to Shell.

Brazil lawsuit

Chevron is also facing a $10 billion lawsuit for a recent pollution incident in Brazil, Bloomberg reports. On 7 November 2011, Chevron spilled 3,000 barrels of oil 230 miles off the  coast of Rio de Janeiro after subcontractor Transocean’s drilling caused cracks in the sea floor.

Brazilian authorities have said they may prosecute employees, shut operations and exact more than $10 billion in fines after the leaks at the Frade field.

Brazil has imposed multi-million dollar penalties on both companies for their inadequate responses to the spill, and suspended their operating licences.Some governments are taking a more robust approach to offshore regulation since BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster. For an industry that has remained conveniently out of sight for decades, the political pressure comes as an unwelcome surprise. Nansen Saleri of Quantum Reservoir Impact LLC, told Bloomberg:

“Those countries who choose to go on a very punitive path at the end will suffer the negative consequences themselves,”

With respect to Saleri, who incidentally worked for Chevron (1974-1992), and has been involved in drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico and West Africa, it is unlikely that investors will be walking away from an estimated 5 to 8 billion barrels of oil in Brazil’s newly discovered Tepi field, in the so-called “pre-salt” oil basin. The Brazilian government is right to require higher environmental and safety standards and to punish those companies in breach. A $10 billion fine is probably one of the most effective means of ensuring that the highest standards are met and deepwater disasters are prevented from happening again.

Will Nigerian regulators do the same? As I’ve argued elsewhere, the token penalties currently imposed by the Nigerian government have little or no impact on multinationals with notoriously low standards. Companies have exploited lax regulations for decades, and local communities have suffered the consequences. Serious penalties that are properly enforced could stem the tide of daily oil spills, regular accidents and safety breaches. Multinationals and their subcontractors should be made to bear the cost of their own mistakes. Ultimately, regulation could also save lives.

Similar to the Niger Delta, a major source of concern about Shell’s operations in Rossport is the environmental impacts of its plans. In response to the spirited opposition that has been going for years, Shell proposed a new pipeline route in 2006, but there are major problems with the new route. According to a report by Dutch organisation SOMO, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, the pipeline would pass houses, bogs and farmland and go through an area prone to landslides. The possibility of landslides, coupled with the instability of peat in some areas the pipeline is expected to pass, significantly exacerbate the chances of pipe failure. The fact that the gas doesn’t smell, making a leak harder to detect, only makes this more dangerous. In addition to concerns about the pipeline route, the refinery which the pipeline would connect to threatens the only source of potable water for 10,000 people.

Shell has finally brought a section of the pipeline onshore using the pipe laying ship, the Solitaire

Concerns are not limited to environment, however. In the words of local historian and campaigner Vincent McGrath,

“We are fighting for many things here: our health, environment and happiness. But we are also fighting for the right to live our lives as we have for generations before Shell came along.”

Furthermore, as the struggle has developed, however, a new source of concern has emerged – alleged repression from the Irish state and Shell’s private security entourage. A number of people from the local community have already been imprisoned for standing up to Shell. Recently, one of these, farmer Willy Corduff, was severely beaten by a group of men in balaclavas following a protest on the Shell site, raising the allegations that Shell’s private security were involved. According to Maura Harrington, a former head-teacher and leading member of the local campaign, Shell-to-Sea, ‘We desperately need accredited observers here to offer some form of protection.’
So, what can we do? All support is welcome – you can send messages, funds, or, best of all, send yourselves. In the words of the Rossport Solidarity Camp:

“The reason why Shell and the State are throwing a world of force against us is because we scare them. And rightly so… If we all make the effort to get to Mayo at this time we can make the critical mass of people to break them. So come on, let’s come together now, all of us, and make the breakthrough.”