45 barrels not 45000 barrels leaked from Bayelsa oil field_ NOSDRA
The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), on Monday confirmed that 45 barrels and not 45, 000 barrels of crude oil leaked from a well head in Bayelsa on March 17, 2020 contrary to her earlier announcement that a Joint Investigative Visit (JIV) to the incident site indicated that 45,000 barrels leaked from the facility due to equipment failure.
It would be recalled that the incident occurred on a well head owned by Shell at Angiama community and NOSDRA had reported that 45,000 leaked. But `NOSDRA has admitted on its official twitter handle that it erred in an earlier update that indicated that the spilled volume was 45,000 barrels and aposlogised for the error. Musa Idris, the Director-General of NOSDRA, has urged the public to disregard the earlier tweet on the 45, 000 barrels spill.
Meanwhile, JIV is a statutory exercise carried out by representatives of host communities, oil firm, state government and regulators to ascertain the cause and estimated volume of oil spill after a leakage is reported by operator of facility. The JIV report No. 0478 indicated that the oil spill adversely impacted an area of 1.2 hectares, while the post spill impact assessment was yet to be carried out. It reported that recovery of leaked crude was completed on March 30th.
