A sophisticated
criminal network has stepped up its operations in Nigeria’s Bayelsa
State, costing state and oil companies as much as a billion dollars per
month.
Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company’s Nigerian subsidiary said in a recent
report that between 150,000 and 180,000 barrels of oil are stolen each
from its pipelines and wells. Government estimates have put the number
of stolen oil as high as twice this amount.
The trade in stolen oil involves international traders who provide
oil at discounted prices to refineries in other parts of the world.Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Nigeria's Bayelsa State,
said the impact of oil theft on the environment was devastating.
Adow witnessed what he called "effectively a crime scene" and "rivers
covered by thick films of oil" while on a helicopter tour of the
region."Vegetation in this once heavily forested region is also devastated by frequent spills and explosions," Adow said.
Philip Mshelbila of Shell Oil in Nigeria told Al Jazeera, "cleaning
up what has already occured would be futile unless you stop more from
happening".
Meanwhile, the men responsible for the oil theft say they will cease
their actions only if the government offers support to the people of the
oil-rich region of western Africa.
"It's stealing, we know, but if the federal government can help us
then we will leave this [work] entirely," said Ibegi Alakoroa, an oil
thief in Bayelsa State.
On Friday, Amnesty International said investigations into Shell Oil
spills were a "fiasco", alleging the company repeatedly blamed sabotage
in an effort to avoid responsibility.
"No matter what evidence is presented to Shell about oil spills, they
constantly hide behind the 'sabotage' excuse and dodge their
responsibility for massive pollution that is due to their failure to
properly maintain their infrastructure," Audrey Gaughran, director of
global issues at Amnesty, said in a statement.
She said "the investigation process into oil spills in the Niger
Delta is a fiasco", referring to the region that is home to Africa's
largest crude industry.
The London-based rights group accused the Anglo-Dutch oil giant of
ignoring evidence that the latest spill in the Delta's Bodo Creek area,
discovered in June, was caused by pipeline corrosion.
Bodo Creek saw two major oil spills in 2008 over which the
Anglo-Dutch petroleum giant is being sued in a London court by 11,000
Bodo residents.
An official from Shell's Nigerian subsidiary told the AFP news agency
the company was not ready to comment on the latest allegations.In the statement, Amnesty said it hired the US company Accufacts to
examine pictures of the Bodo Creek pipeline over the June spill.
According to Amnesty, the company said it noticed a "layered loss of
metal on the outside of the pipe," which is "a very familiar pattern"
consistent with corrosion.
"Shell have said locally that the spill looks like sabotage, and they
completely ignore the evidence of corrosion," said Stevyn Obodoekwe of
the Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development, which
co-authored the Amnesty statement.
irresponsible government,,
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