‘Shell’s Oil Well 13 in Angiama, Bayelsa traced to equipment failure- Community leader’ 9 April 2020

 The oil spill at Angiama community in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area in Bayelsa in March has been traced to equipment failure, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports. The spill reportedly emanated from Well No. 13 at the oilfield operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) at Angiama, a coastal settlement by the Nun River. According to a source, who participated in the Joint Investigative Visit (JIV) to probe the cause of the leak, which discharged a yet to be ascertained volume of crude into the environment, both regulators and the oil firm agree on the cause of the incident.

…“We came here with the JIV team in connection with the cause of the spill. “After everything, we held a meeting at Shell’s Nun River Flow Station. And they told us, including the regulators, that the spill occurred as a result of equipment failure. “Shell also told us it was equipment failure, so that conclusion was unanimous. “Since then, we have been hoping; we told them that they should come and do the clean-up because it is affecting our people. People can no longer drink the water.”

…Edward said that the community had since been waiting for the spills response team from the oil firm to commence oil recovery and clean-up activities to no avail leaving the impacted areas to deteriorate. NAN checks at SPDC’s oil spills website revealed no record of the incident at Angiama but indicated that SPDC recorded two spills in the month of March. The incident of March 5 was an operational spill, while that of March 16 was caused by sabotage according to the JIV report on the web portal. When contacted for a response, Mr Bamidele