The entire volume of spills within the five years (January 2016 and June 13, 2021) is equivalent to over 850 fully loaded trucks emptied into the country’s territorial waters, onshore and offshore.
NOSDRA confirmed that only 4 out of 47 oil companies were involved in these 2% cleanups. The four are Shell, Agip, Chevron and Seplat. There was no indication that the remaining 43 companies cleaned up their oil spills at all.
For the companies that duly cleaned up their oil spills, the volume they cleaned was very little compared to the total number of barrels they spilt.
As Nigeria positions itself for climate revolution and reiterate its commitment to the Paris Agreement and reducing emissions, it must pay closer attention to pollutants like oil spills and have a more concrete approach to regulating and punishing perpetrators.