The federal government through Mr. John Odey, minister of environment recently asked the oil giant, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), to clean up 268 sites in the Niger Delta which the company has polluted over the years. The federal government equally asked the oil company to accelerate action on the remediation plan for all impacted sites in the Niger Delta.
It is very important that Shell takes up this challenge and see it as another opportunity to redeem its battered image in the Niger Delta. It must see the call as an opportunity to contribute to the post-amnesty reconstruction programme already embarked upon by the FG.
It must honestly tackle the task of cleaning up the various sites where its exploratory and production activities have caused oil spills. Shell must also, as part of the exercise, adequately compensate all the people and communities affected.
We will recall that on April 20, this year, the Deepwater Horizon Semi-submersible Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit (Modu) which cost $560 million to build by Hyundai Heavy Industries of South Korea and under lease to BP exploded and caught fire resulting in the death of 11 workers and injuring 17 others southeast of the Louisiana coast in the Macondo Prospect oil field purchased by and operated by the same oil company, BP. It caused Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink, and started a massive offshore oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the United States. It’s currently being regarded as the largest spill in U.S history, and an environmental disaster.  President Barack Obama is now forcing the company to create an escrow account reserving billions of dollars to compensate businesses and individuals affected by the oil spill.
Environmental pollution through oil spill has been part of the history of oil exploration and production in Nigeria; and a major concern to all stakeholders in the Niger Delta over the years.  In fact, environmental pollution forms one of the grievances of the Niger Delta people and a source of agitation by the restive youths in the area in the last decade.
Virtually all the major oil companies operating in the Niger Delta are guilty of the malfeasance. But Shell has been guiltier than all other oil companies put together because of the high number of oil spills caused by both its onshore and offshore activities. It has also been dragged to court by many individuals and communities. Some of court cases against the oil giant are still pending.
Environmental pollution caused by oil spillage has been a major cause of increasing poverty in the Niger Delta region owing to its destruction of economic livelihoods of the people in the oil producing communities. Worst affected are farmlands and fishing activities of the rural and riverside dwellers in the region. Also affected are marine and aquatic lives with the endangerment of rare species.
To complicate matters, there has been little or no compensation for the people and communities affected.
It is sad, however, that regulatory agencies like the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (Fepa) and National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (Nosdra) including individual Niger Delta state’s environmental protection agencies have all fallen short of their regulatory responsibilities over the years, and have not been enforcing the environmental laws and standards in the Niger Delta as it should have been.
Thus the task of cleaning up the oil spillage sites in the Niger Delta is a tripartite one involving the oil companies, the federal and state governments as well as relevant environmental protection agencies.
The regulatory agencies must wake up from their slumber and help to mitigate the negative impacts of oil spills in the Niger Delta.