…And rightly so.

Yesterday I wrote that Ghana has been producing oil from its offshore Jubilee field since December 2010, yet still lacks monitoring vessels, equipment and personnel.

Something else that’s missing: funds to compensate fishing communities in the event of a spill.

This video recounts the fears of the residents of Abuesi, a small fishing community near Sekondi-Takorad (a.k.a. “Oil City”). Travel up and down the coast, and you’ll hear the same fears echoed again and again.

What will happen when a village that is entirely dependent on its fishing operations for its survival is shut down by an oil spill?

For now, Ghana has no plan. Officials prefer to talk instead about the safety of the industry.

Please visit iwatch news to read my latest article on the state of Ghana’s environmental regulation and emergency preparedness.

This is not simply a Ghanaian problem. There’s not a single country in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region prepared to face a major spill. But drilling is booming and few are paying attention to what’s really going on offshore.

Please read the article, share it, like it, recommend it and all that stuff. Several follow-up stories are in the works and, as I said yesterday, it’s your interest and support that allow me to continue this work.

The article on iwatch news:
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/01/19/7896/west-africa-oil-boom-overlooks-tattered-environmental-safety-net

You can also read the article on the “Price of Oil” website where you’ll find lots of valuable information on the true costs of fossil fuels.

I have additional stories, photos and videos about Ghana’s oil viewable at the Pulitzer Center:
http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/ghana-oil-offshore-platform-kwame-nkrumah-environment-fishing-industry

Is Ghana ready for an oil disaster? It’s difficult to find officials who want to talk about the subject. Most prefer saying things like, “We learned many lessons from the Deepwater Horizon spill,” and, “It can’t happen here.” Truth is (and everyone knows this), a disaster can strike anywhere.

Ghana has been producing oil from its offshore Jubilee field since December 2010, yet still lacks monitoring vessels, equipment and personnel. The country has an “oil spill response plan” — on paper — but could Ghana actually respond to and deal with a significant oil spill?

This video and a new article published today on iwatch news explore the state of Ghana’s environmental regulation and emergency preparedness.

This is not simply a Ghanaian problem. There’s not a single country in the oil-rich Gulf of Guinea region prepared to face a major spill. But drilling is booming and few are paying attention to what’s really going on offshore.

Please read the article, share it, like it, recommend it and all that stuff. Several follow-up stories are in the works and, as always, it’s your interest and support that allow me to continue this work.

The article on iwatch news:
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/01/19/7896/west-africa-oil-boom-overlooks-tattered-environmental-safety-net

Additional stories, photos and videos about Ghana’s oil are up at the Pulitzer Center:
http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/ghana-oil-offshore-platform-kwame-nkrumah-environment-fishing-industry

When will protection of the environment become a priority? Photo: Christiane Badgley

The Nigerian government has mandated an investigation into the cause and effect of the Bonga oil spill on December 20th.

An NGO has also raised questions regarding Shell’s use of dispersants without any monitoring or assessment plan.

Fishermen are blaming the spill for a dwindling fish supply and rising prices.

Meanwhile, Shell is moving ahead with its plans to drill in the Arctic waters off Alaska.

Photo: Royal Dutch Shell PLC

That’s a perfect line to sum up the oil industry in Nigeria.

Day two of the general strike and ongoing sectarian violence have pushed news of the Bonga field oil spill to the back pages, but in the end it’s all about oil. Whether it’s pollution on the beach, corruption or violence, the source of Nigeria’s malaise is oil.

But back to that line, “The polluter is strangely in charge of the regulators.” That’s from an editorial that appeared on January 9th in the Nigerian Compass.

It’s a strong piece that succinctly summarizes the problems of a country that has placed oil industry oversight in the hands of the oil companies themselves.

Here’s the editorial:

“LATE last year, one of the three Bonga Offshore Offloading Risers (BOOR), spilled 40,000 barrels into the Atlantic Ocean fringes in Bayelsa and Dela States. The effects have been devastating. Oil spillage remains an environmental challenge in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.

“For the local communities, their livelihoods and very existence are once again under threat from thick slicks of crude oil, seeping into sea, rivers and shorelines destroying marine life and vegetation. The fishing communities have cried out about the spillage killing off fish stocks in the coastline areas. Environmental activists have criticised what was deemed to be the tardy response of the oil multinational to the spillage.

“On its part, Shell explained that it had stepped up its clean-up interventions and pointed out that a third party oil spill also contributed to the disaster. While the efforts of the polluter are noted, we query the cleaning process of oil spillages in Nigeria. For instance, should a polluter lead the response to its oil spillages? The polluter is strangely in charge of the regulators.

“According to media reports, the regulators do not have helicopters, vessels, dispersants, booms and the expertise to manage oil spill response. In other words, the process was conducted according to the dictates, as it were, of the polluter. Such institutional inadequacies hinder the regulatory bodies from rising up to challenges of oil spill whenever it occurs or even prevent same.

“In the interest of transparency and independent monitoring, we call for the regulatory agency, Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), to be well-funded and strengthened. Nigeria must also explore how to build capacity for the oil and gas sector in resolving issues of spillage. The event however calls for a review of environmental laws relating to oil spills.

“It is also time to know what post-spill management infra-structure is in place to manage the effect on such victim countries like Nigeria, on whose Coastline and Continental Shelf, the oil fields are located. How much duty of care do Concessionaries owe Nigeria? What are their rights and liabilities, when spillage occurs? How are erring parties to the concession brought to book? And how may Nigeria enforce relevant international laws and treaties to deter future spills through heavy sanctions or tax?

“Oil explorations and productions in all the jurisdictions of the World, are subject to international laws regulating Continental Shelves, especially when they are off shore. Oil Prospecting Licences (OPL) granted for exploration often transmits into Oil Mining Lease(OML) subsequently granted for production. Each contains relevant clauses with regards to observance of respective rules and treaties. Common law rule as stated in the classicus case of Ryland Vs Fletcher is that anyone who collects and keeps anything capable of doing mischief upon its escape does so at his own risk and if he does not, he is prima facie liable for the consequence of such a mischief except he is able to establish an act of God.

“There is no doubt, therefore, that in any Mining Lease, the Leasee is prima facie liable until the contrary is proved. Enforcing these laws in Nigeria’s municipal jurisdiction, may pose little or no problems, if relevant agencies exercised their statutory powers to prevent such breaches.There is no better time to call for such bodies to be more proactive than now.

“Oil spills must not go without appropriate sanctions being meted out. Such laxities have the potential of sparking off anger and violence which Nigeria can well do without. Sanctions must, then, translate into huge income for government as penalty and substantial restitution for damages, caused in the affected communities. To prevent spills due to carelessness on the part of oil companies and their terrible effects, Nigeria must ensure that global best practices in the oil and gas sector are strictly adhered to by operators in the country.”

***

I will only add that my research to date indicates that without strong laws regulating an industry and the willingness of the government to enforce those laws, “global best practices in the oil and gas sector” is a fairly hollow notion.

January 3, 2012. Oil from the Bonga spill? Photo: AFP

LAGOS, Nigeria — Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s Nigerian subsidiary says it has resumed production at a 200,000 barrel-per-day oil field after containing the worst Nigeria offshore spill in more than a decade.

Spokesman Tony Okonedo said in a statement Thursday that steps had first been taken to ensure it was safe to restart production at the Bonga deep-water oil field.

That’s the word from the Associated Press.  Reuters adds a bit more information:

Nigerian villagers say oil from the spill at Bonga, 120 km offshore, had washed up on the coast, blackening stretches of it and killing fish, but Shell has denied that the oil could be from the Bonga facility.

“Satellite and aerial imagery has confirmed that the Bonga oil leak could not have reached coastlines in the eastern Niger Delta,” the statement said, adding that the oil washing up on the coast must have been a “third party spill”.

Spills by all oil companies operating in the region are common, and it is sometimes hard to tell where they originate.

So, Shell has resumed drilling and there will be no problems meeting demand and as for the fishermen, well, their misfortune isn’t Shell’s problem.

The Nigerian maritime authorities are calling for help for the impacted fishing communities. Nigerian officials are threatening to sanction Shell, reminding the company of its obligations under the “polluter pays principle.” The problem is that under that principle, Shell must clean up any pollution it causes, but is not required to compensate fishermen for lost revenues. And, in any case, Shell denies that it has anything to do with the oil that has washed up on shore.

Ghana should watch this case closely. Every official I’ve spoken with cites “polluter pays” as the answer to the question of what will happen in the event of a spill.

Regarding the photo above, when I saw this image I was struck by the quantity of oil. This isn’t just a bit of oil that has washed ashore. It’s a mess. How hard is it really to determine where that oil came from?  Could this much oil be the result of a bilge dump? How can Shell be certain that all of the oil spilled at the Bonga field was “contained” just miles before hitting land?

The Nigerian organization Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth has been gathering testimony from local fishermen who say the oil has been floating at sea for at least a week.

In any case, there are many unanswered questions, which, unfortunately may not be resolved any time soon. But one thing is certain: as usual, the poor fishing communities who get nothing from the oil suffer when there’s a spill.

A woman walks past some of the hundreds of dead fish believed to have been killed as a result of the recent oil spill off the coast of Nigeria. Photo: George Esiri/EPA

The 40,000 barrel (1.68 million gallon) oil spill that occured sometime around December 20th at Shell’s Bonga facility 120 km off the coast of Nigeria has not been good for the new year.

Well, I should qualify: it hasn’t been good for Nigerians. Nigeria’s largest offshore spill (as opposed to onshore, where larger spills have certainly occurred) in more than a decade hasn’t made a dent in Shell’s stock price and is only getting minimal media coverage outside the country.

As I wrote a few days ago, Shell announced that clean up crews had “contained” the spill before it hit land. According to the company, clean-up crews, dispersants and nature worked together to prevent the spill from arriving onshore. At the same time Shell reported that clean-up crews had discovered a second spill — one that reached land — having nothing to do with the Bonga oil leak.

Shell continues to deny that the onshore mess has anything to do with the Bonga field spill, but many are doubting those claims. The amount of oil that has washed ashore looks substantial (Euronews has produced a short video report that includes villagers showing barrels of oil they’ve shoveled up: Coastal pollution fears after Nigeria oil spill). Could this really be the result of a passing tanker spill/dump? Shell said the company would analyze the oil on the beach to prove it has nothing to do with the Bonga facility.

Where are those results and when Shell presents them, should we believe what we hear?

On December 28th, the Nigerian publication ThisDay ran a story, Another Spill Ravages Western Niger Delta. Capt. Warredi Enisuoh, an official from the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is quoted saying that, “Shell cannot confirm or deny the source of the spill until a forensic test of the oil is carried out.” According to the article NIMASA has launched its own probe into the source of the oil on the beaches.

The amount of oil spilled (Shell says up to 40,000 barrels) is also disputed, with some estimating that the spill could be closer to 60,000 barrels. That’s quite a difference. The only people who can give us more details on how much oil actually spilled are Shell officials and so far the company has not released any further information.

Here’s what is certain: there is oil on the beaches and we’re not talking about the creeks of the Niger Delta (there are some inaccuracies in reporting I’ve seen) — this is oil coming in from the ocean. Dead fish are washing up on the beaches. A fishing ban is on and local fishermen are already suffering. Today (January 2) UPI has a brief story on the fishing ban: Fishing suspended after Nigeria oil spill.

The UPI story reports that, “Samuel Ayadi, chairman of a fishermen’s group, the Akwa Ibom chapter of Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria, told the News Agency of Nigeria suspending fishing ‘has practically crippled our means of livelihood for over a week now.’”

Although there are large scale fishing operations across the Gulf of Guinea, the vast majority of fishermen in the region are artisanal: individuals or small teams who head out in canoes (pirogues), with or without outboard motors. For the most part, these are not people with savings or back-up sources of income. When they can’t fish, they have nothing.

What is happening in Nigeria now highlights everything that I have been researching in Ghana and the Gulf of Guinea over the past months. A report of my investigation for the Center for Public Integrity will soon be published on iwatch news (www.iwatchnews.org). I’ll provide a link to that article as soon as it appears.

In the meantime, I want to emphasize again that what is happening today in Nigeria can happen tomorrow anywhere in the Gulf of Guinea.

Here are a few links to more information on the Bonga spill.

From Nnimmo Bassey, executive director of Environmental Rights Action in Nigeria and chair of Friends of the Earth International: Shell’s Bonga Bongo (and other beats). This piece puts the Bonga spill and Shell’s (dis)information campaign in the larger context of Nigerian petroleum production.

From MSNBC.COM: Coastal villages in Nigeria protest as oil washes ashore. This article is somewhat confusing, referring to oil in the swamps of the Niger Delta, but it gives details on rising anger in coastal communities.

From Daily Kos, a blogger has assembled information and videos on the Bonga spill and the situation in Nigeria more generally: Misery loves company – multiple oil spills in the Niger Delta.

And Sahara Reporters has a good piece on the extremely problematic media situation on the ground with Shell: As Bonga Spill Hits A/Ibom Shoreline, Environmentalists, Fishermen, Trade Tackles With Shell.

Here’s one brief excerpt: “Shell had selected a team of Lagos-based reporters who were flown to Bonga and handsomely paid to secure favourable reportage of the spill which the company claimed it had contained although oil contamination of the coastline is yet to be addressed. A beneficiary of the largesse who declined to disclose the figure he received said that some of the energy correspondents left out by Shell were making a case to be accommodated in the oil spill bribe-fest which is being spearheaded by the Media Relations Department of Shell.”

Oil slick near Bonga field. Photo: Shell Oil

Why do we hear so little about spills in the Gulf of Guinea region? Well, there are the officials and companies who don’t (seem to) give a damn. There are the restrictions on the press in a number of countries and the lack of resources for journalists across the region that hamper in-depth reporting. But there’s also the fundamental lack of oversight: we don’t hear much because the governments themselves don’t know much. They don’t have monitoring systems and are — far too often — at the mercy of the oil companies when it comes to getting information about spills and clean-up.

SkyTruth, an organization that seeks to create environmental awareness through the use of satellite imagery (“If you can see it, you can change it”), has been posting regular updates on the recent Bonga spill.

I’m reposting links to the last two pieces from SkyTruth, which get at several crucial points regarding the Gulf of Guinea: No one knows what’s going on because of the lack of monitoring and oil is being spilled or dumped all the time in the region. Remember the spill off the coast of Ghana in November? Was it from the Jubilee operations or a passing tanker? Who knows?

Oil Pollution off Nigeria – Other Sources?

And the second post:

Shell Oil Spill off Nigeria – How Big?

The FPSO that was the source of Nigeria's recent offshore spill. Photo: AFP

As the spill offshore Nigeria works its way to shore, the lack of information about what is actually happening is depressingly familiar.

Shell reports that less than 40,000 barrels were spilled (at 42 gallons per barrel, that’s something like 1.6 million gallons), but there’s no way to verify that information. Shell posted a photo of the source of the spill, a rupture in the line that carries oil from the offshore storage facility (the FPSO) to oil tankers.

The ruptured line that resulted in 40,000 barrels spilled. Photo: Shell Oil

All information is coming from Shell as the Nigerian government does not have the capacity to oversee the offshore operations. Shell took journalists on a helicopter trip today to see the Bonga field about 120 km offshore and announced that clean up crews had discovered another spill while working on controlling this one.

Shell also announced today that the offshore spill at the Bonga field was contained before reaching land, but, again, there is no way to verify any of this information. How much spilled, what happened to the oil, amount of dispersants used — the only information people have comes directly from Shell.

The spill may be the worst offshore incident since 1998 when ExxonMobil dumped close to 40,000 barrels from an offshore platform.  Reuters reports that the response has nonetheless been muted and cites a Greenpeace spokesman who talks of double standards: spills in Nigeria just don’t get much attention, period.

You can read updates from Shell here: Shell Nigeria Bonga oil leak updates

Skytruth, a non-profit environmental organization that promotes awareness through remote sensing and digital mapping, has posted several satellite images of the spill. You can see them here: Skytruth

A blog post on Skytruth, “Shell Oil Spill Nigeria: FPSOs coming to the US,” also points out that the first FPSO has been authorized in the Gulf of Mexico. FPSOs — floating production, storage and offloading vessels — are for the most part refitted oil tankers. Like the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah in use in the Jubilee field, the FPSO in use in Nigeria’s Bonga field holds the oil pumped up from the underwater wells until tankers haul it away. The blog post points out that FPSOs are “potentially sources of massive oil spills.”  If an arriving tanker were to crash into a FPSO, millions of barrels of oil could possibly be released.

Nigeria in Race to Limit Shell Oil Spill

Lagos – Authorities rushed to prevent one of Nigeria’s worst recent oil spills from reaching the West African nation’s shoreline on Thursday, with production from a major Shell field also shut due to the leak.

Shell, which said the leak has been stopped, has estimated that less than 40 000 barrels of crude have spilled into the sea and was deploying ships with dispersants to attack the slick. Planes were also being mobilised.

It was Nigeria’s worst offshore spill since a 1998 Mobil incident, officials said, though onshore leaks have been estimated at levels far worse since that time in the oil-producing Niger Delta.

“It’s about the same level with what happened in 1998 with the Mobil oil spill,” said Peter Idabor, head of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency.

“The oil slicks went down the whole coast line and beyond Nigeria’s borders.”

Satellite imagery

He said, however, that Nigeria was better prepared this time, with some 210 tons of dispersant being prepared to attack the spill, which has spread to an area between 55km to 70km in size.

Environmental group SkyTruth, using satellite imagery from Wednesday morning it published on its website, estimated the slick was 70km long and 17km wide at its widest point.

It said it covered 923km2 of ocean.

Idabor said it was unclear when the oil slick could reach the shore. London-based Oil Spill Response Limited was to be involved in the clean up, he said.

The slick was moving in the direction of Forcados, which is located along the coast of Nigeria’s Delta state, he said.

Nnimmo Bassey, the Nigeria-based head of Friends of the Earth International who has closely monitored spills in the country, called it a major incident and pressed for an independent analysis of the amount of oil leaked.

“We can see a real threat to livelihood to fishermen and local communities onshore,” he said.

Doubt

The leak occurred on Tuesday at Shell’s Bonga field some 120km off Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and an Opec member. Production has halted at the field, which has a capacity of 200 000 barrels per day.

The company claimed on Thursday that “up to 50% of the leaked oil has already dissipated due to natural dispersion and evaporation”, but that figure was impossible to verify independently.

Bassey cast doubt on the figure, saying: “I don’t believe that 50% would disperse over just less than two days.”

Shell said it was deploying vessels and mobilising planes to fight the spill with dispersants.

The company said the leak occurred during a transfer of crude to a waiting tanker. The likely source was an export line linking a production vessel to the tanker, it said.

Nigeria has been producing between 2.0 and 2.4 million barrels per day in recent months.

Scores of oil spills have occurred in the country, but most have been onshore, particularly due to pipeline sabotage aimed at stealing crude to sell on the black market as well as militant attacks.

Oil pollution

Activists say Shell and other companies have not done enough to prevent oil leaks at their facilities.

The UN released a report in August saying decades of oil spills in the Nigerian area of Ogoniland may require the biggest cleanup ever undertaken, with communities dependent upon farmers and fishermen left ravaged.

Activists say two spills in the Ogoni community of Bodo in 2008 amounted to hundreds of thousands of barrels, but Shell disputes that figure and says it was far lower.

Amnesty International has estimated that if all types of oil pollution in the vast Niger Delta – the country’s oil-producing region – are added up over the past half-century, it would be “on par with the Exxon Valdez every year over the last 50 years”.

- SAPA

The eighth dead whale to wash ashore in the Western Region since late 2009. The Ghana EPA says there's no connection to oil drilling, but doesn't offer any details to back up the assertion. Photo courtesy of Friends of the Nation.

Yes, Ghana has been an oil producing nation for one year now.

One year on and where do things stand? In terms of environmental oversight, not much has changed and there remains much progress to make.

There are still no details available on November’s oil spill, so for now there’s no way to know if that oil came from a passing tanker or another source.

A study initiated by the Ministry of the Environment, Science and Technology  (MEST) and funded by Kosmos Energy indicates that the country still lacks a “clear environmental mandate” for the oil and gas sector.  The study also cites insufficient resources for regulatory agencies, which is not news for anyone who has been looking at the environmental oversight of Ghana’s oil industry. What’s new is that MEST is publicly acknowledging this.

Let’s hope it leads to something.

Putting money before environmental considerations can have devastating consequences and a new report from the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council (U.S.) indicates that this is just what happened in the years preceding the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The Los Angeles Times reports that the study showed the “multiple flawed decisions that led to a blowout” on the Deepwater Horizon rig resulted from “a deficient overall systems approach to safety” among the corporations that ran the drilling of the Macondo well, including BP, Transocean and Halliburton.

You can read the article, Safety seemed to be an afterthought before the BP oil spill, on the LA Times website.