With about 172 oil spills in the country in one month, a bill seeking to initiate a regime of stiffer punishment for companies responsible for oil spillage in the country is underway as it has passed second reading at the Senate.
This was revealed in a bill sponsored by Sen. Bukola Saraki, which seeks to amend the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Act 2006.
The bill also seeks to amend NOSDRA Act and strengthened it regulatory capacity yesterday passed second reading.
According to Senator Saraki who read the lead debate on the Bill he said “The cost of spilling oil in Nigeria may be a stain on the company’s reputation but not on its profit margins.
This is as Nigeria will lose over $4 billion as a result of the Bonga oil spill which happened last December.
The senator said that the recent oil spill along the gulf of mexico cost British Petroleum (BP) a total of $40bn, but in Nigeria for oil spill of the same magnitude or more, the affected individuals and families will get bags of rice, beans, and blankets and bread.
“Today, Nigeria will lose in the region of over $4bn due to Bonga, but Nigeria will get nothing for loss of revenue. We don’t even feel entitled to anything.
In fact if
we don’t pass this amendment bill, the scenario where the federal government would use taxpayers money to clean up and remediate the environment will follow.”
“A major highlight of this bill is the very robust penalty regime, which aims at encouraging enviromental responsibility and care. The overall principle is that the polluter must pay. The benefit of this penalty regime is to cause operators to take more care to avoid spills and take proactive steps to nip in the buds any impending spill without much ado.
He added that the bill will seek to strengthen the monitoring of oil spillages in the country.
He further lamented that the agencies saddled with the responsibility of detecting oil spillages lack the capacity for oil spill detection and that they rely on reports from oil companies or civil society concerning the incidence of oil spill.
Saraki lamented that an estimated 13 million to 16 million barrels of oil has been spilled into the ecosystem over the last 50 years.
He said that the amendment which among other things seeks to impose penalties and compensation for oil spill would go along way to help NOSDRA manage oil spill in a much robust way.
Senators took turn to commend the bill, even as some pointed accusing fingers at the agencies saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that Oil spills are detected and appropriate action taken.
Summing up the views of senators, Senate President, David Mark, slammed the agencies for their laxity and connivance with oil companies instead of tackling the problem.
“The summary of all that I have heard is that we should first put our house in order. Even if we amend the bill we must insist that Nigerians are made to do what they are supposed to do”.
But in an interactive session with the committee on enviroment, chaired by senator saraki, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) lamented weakness of the law setting up regulatory agencies to catch crude oil thieves.
Director General of the NOSDRA, Sir Peter Idabor declared that over 5,000 barrels of crude theft from the facilities of the major oil multinationals were reported outside the thefts that took place within the facilities of Pipeline Products Marketing Company (PPMC).
He noted that most of the stolen crude are being ferried to the major international borders for sale.