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AFRICA
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Shell oil fire angers Nigerian community
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Lagos, Nigeria
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| 12 October 2004 13:42 |
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A pipeline carrying crude oil across the unruly Niger delta region to Nigeria's main export terminal has burst and is on fire, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell and a local leader said on Tuesday.
The 70cm Trans-Niger pipeline carrying crude from wells in southern Nigeria to Shell's Bonny oil-export terminal was reported to be leaking on Monday, company officials said.
Shell said it had already moved in to control the fire and the leak.
But a local ethnic leader insisted that the firm's engineers had not yet arrived, but simply flown over the area in a helicopter.
"We sent a team of experts to cap the leak but were prevented by youths in the community," a Shell spokesperson said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Community leaders intervened but, before we could access the area, some unknown persons had set fire on the leak, causing a spill into a nearby fish pond," he continued.
"Our men are there right now, working. We have contained the fire and the leak will be capped today. We have also launched an inquiry into the incident."
The village where the fire broke out is in the traditional homeland of the Ogoni people, who have a long-standing dispute with Shell.
The firm halted oil production in Ogoniland, a minority enclave north of the oil city of Port Harcourt, in 1993 following protests and bad international publicity over the environmental damage its operations were causing.
But important pipelines still run through Ogoni territory and community leaders still accuse the oil giant of polluting and exploiting their land without being prepared to pay for community development.
"The villagers say that the fire started early yesterday, after the spill had been seen the night before," said Ledum Mitee, president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People.
"Up until the time I am speaking to you nothing has been done about it. Containment measures have not been taken," he said, denying there had been any local protest to prevent Shell gaining access to the site.
Mitee said that oil from the burst pipeline was leaking into a tidal creek and threatening a large stretch of farmland.
"The leak is barely an hour's drive from Port Harcourt, I can't see why they don't come," he added.
The latest incident came as concerns over the security of world oil supplies mounted and the price of a barrel of crude on the London market passed $54 for the first time.
Nigeria is in the second day of a four-day general strike and, despite an admission by unions that they do not plan to disrupt exports, oil traders are anxiously monitoring the country's daily supply of about 2,5-million barrels. -- Sapa-AFP
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