Less than one week after the global human rights watchdog, Amnesty International (AI) released a report accusing Royal Dutch Shell and Italian oil giant, Eni of always watering down cases of oil spills in Nigeria to escape huge payment of compensation, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Nigeria Limited has denied the report, saying “it remains committed to swift response to oil spill incidents as much as access and security conditions permit teams to mobilise and deploy to spill sites to investigate, clean up and remediate such areas”.
Whereas Eni maintained silence on the accusation, General Manager, External Relations, SPDC, Igo Weli, said in his response, that “This is in addition to deploying technology and best practices to make it more difficult for unauthorised persons to break pipelines and steal crude oil from its facilities”.
“SPDC, in collaboration with government regulators, responds swiftly to spill incidents as quickly as it can, and cleans up spills from its facilities regardless of the cause.
“We regularly test our emergency spill response procedures and capability to ensure that staff and contractors can respond rapidly to an incident. However, response to spills, clean-up and remediation depend on access to the spill site and ultimately on the security of personnel and equipment, while work is ongoing.”
He argued that AI’s allegations are false, without merit and fail to recognise the complex environment in which the company operates where security, a sole prerogative of the government, remains a major concern with persisting incidents of criminality, kidnapping, vandalism, and threats from self-described militant groups, etc.
According to him, “transparency in the online reporting of spill incidents by SPDC since 2011, which Amnesty itself acknowledged, demonstrated its commitment to creating awareness and enhancing collaboration with key stakeholders on oil spill response and clean-up processes, and deepening understanding of the complex and challenging operating environment”.
Although the AI report called on the Nigerian government to further investigations using its report as guide, there has been no official response of the government or any sign of interest in the call for probe of the two oil giant.
