Chevron
Nigeria Limited and its host communities have expressed divergent views
on a gas leak reported at Chevron’s offshore gas field in the Atlantic
Ocean located off the Bayelsa coastline.
The News Agency of Nigeria
reports that officials of the National Oil Spills Detection and Response
Agency confirmed receiving a report of a leakage in Chevron’s field on
Wednesday.
Head of NOSDRA’s Zonal Operations office
in Port Harcourt, Mr. Adeyinka Adewumi, said the agency had received a
report of the leak from Chevron and was awaiting a joint visit to
ascertain the cause of the leakage.
Coastal communities in Koluama 1 and
Koluama 2 communities had alleged that the gas leakage discharged crude
and gas into the environment, leading to the pollution of the air and
marine ecosystem.
A resident from Fishtown community in
Brass council area of Bayelsa State, Mr. Larry Gabriel, said the leaking
well, located about five kilometres from the site of the January 2012
gas explosion, “is still discharging gas into the air.’’
Gabriel said, “The leakage is yet to
stop, they have been deploying chemicals to dissolve the oil and sink it
to the sea bed as it gushes out from the well. That is why they are
saying that they have no oil spill.
“The traces of dissolved crude have hit
the shoreline. The gas emission has compromised the air quality and the
smell is everywhere but unfortunately gas is invisible but they had an
explosion here in 2012 and we do not want a repeat.”
No comments:
Post a Comment