Oil Spill and the Maritime environment
A PRESENTATION MADE AT THE SIXTH NIGERIA INTERNATIONAL MARITIME PORTS AND
TERMINAL EXPO AND CONFERENCE (NIMPORT 2013)
AT LE’ MERIDIEN HOTELS AND GOLF RESORTS, UYO
ON AUGUST 29, 2013
By
Sir Peter Idabor
DIRECTOR GENERAL / CHIEF EXECUTIVE
NATIONAL OIL SPILL DETECTION AND RESPONSE AGENCY
INTRODUCTION
Oil spills are the harmful release of oil into the environment, usually in the water,
sometimes killing flora and fauna. Oil is the most common pollutant in the oceans.
More than 3 million metric tons of oil contaminates the sea every year.
The oil spill under consideration are the accidental or intentional release of crude
and refined petroleum products, including chemical substances into the
environment as a result of human activity (drilling, manufacturing, storing,
transporting, waste management), that floats on the surface of water bodies as a
discrete mass and is carried by the wind, currents and tides. Oil spills can be
partially controlled by mechanical/chemical dispersion, in-situ combustion,
containment and adsorption measures. They have destructive effects on coastal
and marine ecosystems.
Some major oil spills in the Nigerian Marine Environment
include: GOCON's Escravos' spill in 1978 of about 300,000
barrels, SPDC's Forcados Terminal Tank failure in 1978 of
about 580,000 barrels, Texaco's FUNIWA-5 blowout in 1980
of about 400,000 barrels. Others include Abubu pipeline in
1982 of about 18,818 barrels, 1998 Jesse fire incident (SE
Warri- Delta State) which claimed about 1000 lives , and
more recently, SNEPCO's 2011 BONGA spill, where more
than 40,000 barrels was released into the marine
environment
SOURCES OF OIL SPILLS IN THE NIGERIAN MARINE ENVIRONMENT
• Most oil spills occur as a result of oil production
operations (well blowouts, pipeline breaks or
leaks)
• Illegal oil bunkering and refining activities
• During product loading and unloading (ship
collisions or groundings overfilling of tanks and
bilge pumping from ships at the jetties)
• Leaking underground storage tanks
• Oil-contaminated water runoff from streets and
parking lots during rain storms.
MAJOR CAUSES OF SPILLS
• Equipment failures - Including faulty
equipments, rupture of flanges, faulty gauges
and meters etc
• Corrosion (pipelines and storage facilities)
• Operational error
• Sabotage (third party interference)
• Mystery (spill from unknown sources)
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF OIL SPILLS ON MARINE ECOSYSTEM
The impacts of oil pollution on marine ecosystem can be
categorized into long-term and short-term effects.
• Depletion of fish population
• Loss of Mangrove forest
• Water pollution
• Endangers birds and other aquatic animals
• Tourism
• Farming
• Air Pollution
NOSDRA MANDATE AND THE NATIONAL OIL SPILL CONTINGENCY PLAN
• The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) is
an Agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment with the
mandate to play the lead role in ensuring timely, effective and
appropriate response to oil spills, as well as ensuring cleanup and
remediation of all impacted sites to all best practical extent.
• To achieve this, the Agency is vested with the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency
Plan (NOSCP), for Nigeria in accordance with the international
Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness , Response and Cooperation (OPRC) 1990, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
NOSCP
• The NOSCP is a blueprint/ manual for checking
oil spill through containment, recovery and
remediation/ restoration. It is a proactive
strategy for preventing loss of lives, assets and
natural resources, and operates on a tiered
system of oil spill classification (Tiers 1,2 and 3).
MITIGATION MEASURES FOR OIL SPILL MANAGEMENT
The Agency ensures that all operators have
individual OSCP's that is integrated into the
NOSCP, indicating personnel and equipment
inventory, as well as encourage cooperation
between organizations in relation to oil spill
management and proper sensitization of all
stakeholders
CHALLENGES TO THE AGENCY
•
•
•
•
Funding
Insecurity of marine environment
Capacity Building of personnel
Access to Spill sites in reasonable time
WAY FORWARD
• Continuous sensitization of Nigerians on the need prevent sabotage, illegal
bunkering and oil theft and to ensure safety of all assets.
• More collaboration between all stakeholders in the oil production and
transportation sector value chain, to minimize oil spill incidents.
• Enhanced security surveillance of the marine environment.
• The Agency is in the process of building a national crude oil fingerprinting
data base, which will address the issue of incessant mystery spills (spills from
unknown sources) in the marine environment.
• Ports and terminal operators should ensure compliance to statutory
regulations of the Agency (NOSDRA).
• Stringent penalties for defaulters
• Replacement of Faulty pipes by Operators
May 1, 2010 Idoho Oil spill
Nov 9, 2012 Usari-Idoho Spill
Nov 9, 2012 Usari-Idoho Spill
Bonga spill of December 2011
NOSDRA DISCOVERY 1 SPILL RESPONSE VESSEL
THANK YOU