...Says 28% Of Spills Is Sabotage

Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology has faulted claim by oil companies on oil spills saying 28 percent of spills that occurred in the country are due to sabotage.

Chairman of the committee Mr. Bukola Saraki, the immediate past governor of Kwara state debunked claims of oil companies that claimed that 70 percent of oil spills are as a result of sabotage.

Mr. Saraki disclosed this at a stake holders interactive session on the planned amendment of the National Oil Spill Dictation and Response Agency (NOSDRA) Bill 2012, which had gone through second reading on the floor of the senate .

He told the stakeholders that included Non-governmental Organisations (NGO) that the statistics at the disposal of the committee did not support the claim of the oil companies on current situation of spills in the country.

According to him "the statistics we have since authenticated suggest that something very different, that 50 per cent of oil spills in Nigeria are due to corrosion of oil infrastructure including pipelines that are over 40-50 years old and therefore above their live integrity value".

The lawmaker stated that "28 percent of this spills are determined to be as a result of sabotage and 21 per cent as a result of oil production operations".

He said from the statistics at the disposal of the legislature "negligence is playing a major role in the level of oil spills we are recording in Nigeria. Our on the field enquiry and various comparative analyses indicate that unless we change the law on spill management in Nigeria, we will not make progress".

Mr. Saraki explained that once the bill becomes law "we can leverage to help reduce poverty and the suffering of our people and bequeath to them a more livable environment".

He told the stakeholders before going into close session "I am expectant that this parley will help us not only to make this bill better, but also enlighten all of us on the various ramifications including the need to stop the on going vandalization of oil pipelines and facilities taking all around the country".

"Whatever the grievances we may have, it will not be resolved by this criminality neither will we be doing our environment our most precious heritage, any favours by exercerbating the degradation through backyard refining of crude," he maintained.