Royal Dutch oil gian Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) has been fined N1 million over failure to clean up oil spill sites in which resulted in an inferno that destroy some part of Perema-biri community, in southern Ijaw Local government Area of Bayelsa state.
The financial penalty was imposed by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) as required by its Act which stated that the fine should be paid within 14-day from the date of receipt of such a letter from the Agency.
A statement from the NOSDRA yesterday said apart from the financial sanction, Shell will also pay compensation to the victims in the community after determined the level of damage caused by the fire incident.
The Agency said it has already set up a team to ascertain the level of damage done by the fire in the community and which action will follow some.
When contacted yesterday the Corporate Affairs Department of Shell didn’t ignore the incident but promised to comment officially on the issues today (Wednesday).
The NOSDRA accused Shell of negligence, saying that the incident occurred as a “result of the negligence and lackadaisical attitude of shell in effecting immediate clean up of spill in the community”.
The statement said, the Director General of NOSDRA, Dr Bamidele A. Ajakaiye had personally written a letter to Shell management to reminded them on the spill following a complaint received on 26th September 2008 from the community.
“A joint investigation was carried out on the impacted sites by concerned parties on Octorber 7th, 2008. Following the joint investigation visit, it was agreed that the oil company, based on the mandate of NOSDRA, will be required to immediately contain, recover and clean up the impacted sites”.
According to the statement, “Failure by Shell to clean up the sites in Perema-biri Community within a reasonable time frame is a contravention of section 6 (3) of the NOSDRA Act which informed the financial sanction to be paid by the oil firm within the next 14 days from the date of receipt of the letter from the agency”.
In addition to that, the agency said Shell was directed to mobilize to impacted sites already destroyed by fire for immediate clean-up and remedia-tion in order to prevent further degradation of the environment.
Daily Trust gathered that the 14-day deadline to pay the fine has already lapsed yesterday. An anonymous official from Shell confirmed that they received the letter on March 31st, 2009 but they are still processing for the payment.