National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) is ready and committed to work in synergy with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to frontally address the vexatious issues of recurring oil spills and facility vandalism at its areas of operation.
The Director-General/Chief Executive (DG/CE) of NOSDRA, Idris O. Musa, gave this assurance when a team from SPDC, led by its Oil Spill Detection and Response (OSDR) Manager, Mr. Pankys Hirse, visited the agency’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday for a presentation on how the multinational oil firm had been striving to curtail facility vandalism and crude oil theft and the precipitate environmental pollution through spill incidence.
In his remarks, Hirse commended NOSDRA for proactive collaboration with the oil giant that eventuated in effective cleanup and remediation of a reasonable number of oil spill sites, as well as re-polluted sites, attributed to third party interference arising from the nefarious activities of pipeline vandals and crude oil thieves.
He blamed the greater percentage of acts of sabotage on SPDC’s facilities to illegal connection (IC) to tap petroleum products, while expressing satisfaction that through the feasible measures put in place by the company, such as deployment of technology (including drones), helicopter surveillance, aversion and arrest system for petroleum crime perpetrators, disruption of illegal refineries by security and law enforcement agencies and pipeline mean time repairs, the incidence of facility vandalism and crude oil theft had been on the downward trend. While giving kudos to SPDC’s OSDR Manager for his insightful presentation, the DG/CE of NOSDRA assured that the agency will understudy the document meticulously.