How Chevron preserves the environment; A case of Abiteye Mangrove Restoration
By all international best standards and practices, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), conducts its business in a socially and environmental responsible manner in compliance with regulatory requirements, stakeholder expectation and best practices.
From the beginning, CNL’s environmental stewardship process lays the foundation for sound environmental management. The identification, assessment and management of environmental risks run through the company’s entire projects’ cycles from inception to operations and through decommissioning.
No doubt, the oil multinational clearly recognizes the importance of minimizing its footprints and conserving biodiversity. A good example is the Abiteye Mangrove Restoration
CNL’s Abiteye Field is located in OML 49 and situated in an ecosystem of mixed coastal mangrove and freshwater swamp forest of the Niger Delta, in Delta State. Abiteye Field came on stream in October 1972.
The Abiteye Jacket #1 had a sabotage/third party interference event at the well head resulting in a fire incident and an oil spill. The incident impacted about 14 hectares of vegetation (on both sides of the Abiteye River). Following cleanup and monitoring it was aligned that there was the need for intervention through a Mangrove Restoration program. The mangrove restoration work was focused on the restoration of the Abiteye Jacket #1 impacted sites towards enhancing its ecological functionality and thus, demonstrate Chevron’s commitment to environmental stewardship in its areas of operations.
The execution of the restoration program included pre-site visits, training of local women on setting up of nursery to grow the mangrove seedlings (propagules), transplanting of seedlings and monitoring. The field activities took place between December 2016 and April 2018. Monitoring commenced in June 2018 and is still ongoing with observable average survival rate of about 88.3% for the right side and about 80.2% for the left side of the area. Monitoring activities will continue to assess the survival rate of the mangrove.
CNL is committed to biodiversity conservation in its area of operations to maintain ecological integrity in line with our Environmental Stewardship expectations. The Mangrove restoration also enabled CNL to impact the community positively through training of Community women on identification of viable mangrove propagules; raising them in the nursery for transplanting more than 10,500 propagules.
The overall success of the Abiteye Mangrove Restoration Project (AMRP) has provided valuable insights and will be leveraged for future restoration activities.
Explaining CNL’s commitment to the environment, the Chairman/Managing Director, Jeff Ewing, noted that CNL is happy to be part of the solution to the global environmental issues wherever the company operates through its sound environmental management policy that supports environmental stewardship and sustainable development.
