Why oil multinationals must urgently decommission old assets, remediate the N/Delta environment 

By Obiabin Onukwugha 

Recently, calls to decommission old and abandoned oil well fields and assets, followed by cleanup and remediation of the Niger Delta region has continued to intensify.

The calls intensified amidst assets divestment by major oil multinational companies that operated in the region for decades leaving the environment and livelihoods of the people unattended to.

One concern has been that these pipes and wellheads which were installed in the ‘50s have become rust and prone to bursts and sabotage, thus further polluting the environment and fueling climate change crisis in the region.

On August 3, a leak was reported in well head 14 of the Yorla oil field in Khana local.government area of Rivers State. Joint Investigation Visit by stakeholders, including the operator, Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Nigeria Oil Spill Detection and Remediation Agency (NOSDRA) and the host community, Kpean, revealed that the leak, which eventually led to fire break out, was as a result of equipment failure, 

During a visit to the spill site, environmental bodies called on the Nigerian government to urgently order the multinationals to decommission all oil well heads and facilities across the Niger Delta region in order to avoid further disaster on communities and the environment.

The bodies, included Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Lekeh Development Foundation (LEDEF), and Kebekache Women Development Centre, made the call after an inspection visit to Yorla oil field, in Kpean community, Khana local government area of Rivers State, where an oil spill recently occured at well 14.

Speaking shortly after the visit, executive director of HOMEF, Dr. Nnimmo Bassey, stated that the latest spill is a confirmation that there have been proper reaction or oil spills in the Niger Delta region. 

He said: “The Ogoniland communities confirms many things. One, that there’s never been a proper reaction or response to oil spills in the Niger Delta over the past 70 years. And for oil wells that have been abandoned since 1993 to keep on polluting the environment, keep on leaking or bursting into flames, it shows that there is no safety in the oil field communities in the region. 

“And so, the visit was just a confirmation that disasters are lurking in the corner and that any non-decommissioned oil well is a potential time bomb. Right from the first one at Oloibiri to this latest one, anywhere that oil wells have been abandoned and left un-decommissioned.”

Bassey wondered why the federal government is planning reentry into Ogoni for oil producion when oil and undecommissioned facilities still poses threat to the environment. “So, we are calling on the government to now order the oil companies to decommission all their old oil wells, dismantle them, remove all the rotten pipelines and replace them with new ones or replace them or decommission them and just clean out the area. 

This is the significance of that call and the fact that it doesn’t make sense to have this continuous disasters from old oil facilities in the Niger Delta. The government is even dreaming of reopening them and then creating more disasters for the people,” Bassey stated.  

Friday Mbane, the director, Lekeh Development Foundation (LEDEF), decried the risks and dangers that continuous oil spills pose on the environment and people of the Niger Delta.

“We are sending our message out in a very bold manner to say enough is enough for this pollution, oil spillage in Ogoni. We want government, we want the oil company to work together to solve community problems by helping in remediation, in restoring, in building community strength.

Mbane, who memtioned that the inspection coincided with a day that the LEDEF office was being opened in Bori, also called for post-assessment of the health conditions of the people after decommissioning and remediation.

“So, the government and the company, the company particularly, have to facilitate that as soon as possible and decommission the facilties and ensure the environment returns to its fertile land that it was and also do a post-assessment..

“What we are after is a clean environment. We are not after their process whether divestment or no divestment. All we want is that that facility that is there, whosoever is responsible for it should as soon as possible, act very fast because it poses dangerous risk to farmers and fishermen in that community,” he stated. 

Lemii Donaldson, Youth Leader of Kpean community, who led the team to the spill site stated that the facility was abandoned since 1993 during the Ogoni struggle against Shell.  He said a JIV carried out revealed that it was an equipment failure.

“So, our request is that those well heads should be decommissioned and fenced so that you place a security there. As we went there you see that those places and bushy,” he ssid. 

During the visit, it was also observed that the fire that earlier broke out has been put out  by persistent rainfall.

On Sunday, seven United Nations human rights mandate holders raised serious concerns over the recent sale of Nigerian oil assets by major international companies, saying the transactions “lacked transparency” and could worsen human rights impacts while hindering ongoing cleanup efforts.

In letters published on the UN’s website on Sunday, the experts addressed Shell, Eni, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies, as well as the governments of Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.

The letters, according to a report by Premium Times, warned that the divestments were conducted “without following a human rights-based approach and against international law obligations,” and emphasized the companies’ continuing responsibility for historic environmental pollution.

According to the UN correspondence, the oil companies have treated Nigeria “as an experiment for divestment without clean-up,” transferring assets to local buyers without ensuring sufficient resources are in place to remediate decades of environmental damage.

Sophie Marjanac, Director of Legal Strategy at the Polluter Pays Project, said the UN intervention bolsters legal efforts by local communities to hold oil companies accountable.

“The people of the Niger Delta have been slowly poisoned by the effects of oil extraction and many have had their livelihoods destroyed. This UN intervention strengthens the hands of Nigerians that are taking the oil companies to court – like the Billie, Ogale and Bodo communities – as it makes it clear the firms have legal obligations to rectify the human rights abuses they’ve caused,” she said.

Marjanac further emphasized the role of governments in enforcing accountability, “The sales should not have been allowed to go ahead without comprehensive clean up plans in place.

“But now that they have, the governments where the oil companies are headquartered and the Nigerian government should urgently intervene with each company to ensure due diligence was followed, and that sufficient funds have been provided to Nigerian authorities in respect of historic liability. States have a legal duty to regulate to protect human rights, and must not let the oil companies off the hook,” the letters read in part.