LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Amnesty International said oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and the Italian oil major ENI admitted to more than 550 oil spills in Niger Delta last year, which is seriously alarming.
Shell and ENI together reported more than 550 oil spills in the Niger Delta in 2014, according to an Amnesty International analysis. Niger Delta is the oil basin of Nigeria, the biggest petroleum producing nation of West Africa, where some 2 million barrels of oil a day are extracted.
Highlighting the magnitude of the disaster, Amnesty said that by contrast, on average, there were only 10 spills a year across the whole of Europe between 1971 and 2011.
Shell reported 204 Niger Delta spills in 2014 while ENI, which operates in a smaller area, reported a staggering 349 spills, the London-based human rights watchdog said Thursday.
'These figures are seriously alarming. ENI has clearly lost control over its operations in the Niger Delta. And despite all its promises, Shell has made no progress on tackling oil spills,' said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International's Global Issues Director.
'In any other country, this would be a national emergency. In Nigeria it appears to be standard operating procedure for the oil industry. The human cost is horrific - people living with pollution every day of their lives,' she added.
The companies say that only 30,000 barrels or 5 million liters of oil were spilled. However, given the very poor reporting systems used by oil companies this figure is highly likely to be a significant underestimate, Amnesty believes.
The oil companies blame sabotage and theft for the vast majority of the spills. This claim is hotly contested by communities and NGOs, and has been shown to be wrong.
Amnesty pointed out that in November 2014, during a legal action in the UK, Shell was forced to admit that it had underestimated the size of the two major Niger Delta oil spills, after years of denials.
On top of the 349 spills in 2014, ENI reported more than 500 oil spills in 2013. The Nigerian regulator reported 474 oil spills from ENI operations in 2012.
It sought an investigation by the Italian government into what is happening in ENI's Nigerian operations.
Amnesty demanded that all oil firms in Nigeria urgently disclose the age and condition of their infrastructure, carry out reviews of their operating practices, and make the findings public.
It reminded that according to Nigerian law, the oil companies are responsible for containing and cleaning up spills, and returning affected areas to their prior state. However, this rarely happens. As a result, people in the Niger Delta are living with the cumulative impact of decades of pollution.
The effects of oil in the fragile Niger Delta communities and environment have been enormous. Local indigenous people have seen little improvement in their standard of living while suffering serious damage to their natural environment.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX