Cleaning up decades-long oil pollution and restoring environmental health in just one of Nigeria’s crude-producing states will cost at least $12 billion, investigators said.
Bayelsa state, home to some two million people, “is in the grip of a human and environmental catastrophe of devastating proportions,” they warned in a much-awaited report.
Lying in the Niger Delta region, Bayelsa is where oil was first discovered in Africa in the 1950s, and where companies Shell and Eni have operated for decades.
“Once home to one of the largest mangrove forests on the planet, rich in ecological diversity and value, the region is now one of the most polluted places on Earth,” the report said.
The four-year investigation, carried out by the Bayelsa State Oil and Environmental Commission — an international panel of experts and prominent figures who worked at the request of the local government says “At least $12 billion” is needed to “clean up the soil and drinking water, reduce the health risk to people and restore mangrove forests essential to stopping floods.”
It called on Shell and Eni, whose local subsidiaries still operate in the region, to pay a share of the bill.
“We are asking Shell’s new CEO Wael Sawan, before selling off Shell’s remaining onshore oil assets, to commit immediately to paying their share of the $12 billion bill,” said the commission’s chairman, John Sentamu, a member of Britain’s House of Lords and former Archbishop of York.
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In a written statement, Shell said it had not seen the report and could therefore not respond to its conclusions at this time.
Eni also said that it had not been consulted about the report and rejected allegations of “environmental racism” made by the commission.
In response to the request for comment, Eni said it “conducts its activities according to the sector’s international environmental best practices, without any distinction on a country basis.”
“Regardless of the cause of a spill, we clean up and remediate areas affected by spills originating from our facilities,” a Shell spokesperson said.
Eni also said the company “undertakes to remedy in all cases” when spills occur.
Both companies continue to blame most oil spills on sabotage and theft
The report is based on over 2,500 pieces of evidence including 500 interviews and analysis of 1,600 blood samples from local people.
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