Oil Spill and the Maritime environment

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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 co-ordinate the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP), for Nigeria in accordance with the international Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness , Response and Co-operation (OPRC) 1990, to which Nigeria is a signatory.

8. 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).

9. 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

10. CHALLENGES TO THE AGENCY • Funding • Insecurity of marine environment • Capacity Building of personnel • Access to Spill sites in reasonable time

11. 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

12. May 1, 2010 Idoho Oil spill

13. Nov 9, 2012 Usari-Idoho Spill

14. Nov 9, 2012 Usari-Idoho Spill

15. Bonga spill of December 2011

16. NOSDRA DISCOVERY 1 SPILL RESPONSE VESSEL

17. THANK YOU