Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company has said it discovered a third-party oil spill near its Bonga floating production, storage and offloading facility.The FPSO had spilled around 40,000 barrels of oil last Tuesday.The firm said the other spill was hampering its efforts to clean up the Bonga spill but contended that most of its leak had now largely dispersed.A statement from the company on Sunday quoted the Chairman, Shell Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu, as saying, Our teams witnessed oil on the surface of the water that they are sure did not come from Bonga. We have taken samples of this oil to understand where it came from.While that analysis is being done, I have instructed our teams to tackle all the oil they can see, including oil spilled by third parties, and to ensure all measures are taken to protect the onshore areas.The statement also indicated that the oil leak from Bonga, which occurred during a routine transfer operation on December 20, had now largely dispersed.I am very sorry the leak from Bonga happened in the first place, but I am now happy to confirm the oil has dispersed, Sunmonu said.An estimated 40,000 barrels leaked from a damaged export line running from the FPSO to a waiting tanker.It is the largest leak in Nigeria since 1998, when a similar amount of oil leaked from a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline.Shell shut down the 200,000 barrel a day facility, which generates 10 per cent of the countrys entire oil output, in the immediate aftermath of the incident.The company said production would not resume until after an investigation and all necessary repairs had been completed.The Minister of Environment, Mrs. Hadiza Mailafia, said last week the ministry, Shell Nigeria and other technical partners were targeting six weeks to address the effects of the Bonga oil spill as well as the clean up of the mess.She said this after a joint team of the ministry, Shell, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, immigration, customs and other technical partners visited the spill site.According to Mailafia, there will be a thorough investigation into the cause of the spill by the technical partners, adding that the investigation would be in the interest of the country, Shell and the technical partners.She commended Shell for its quick response to the challenge and for accurate provision of data as regards the spill. She also pointed out that currently, there were seven vessels, two aircraft and two helicopters working to put the situation under full control.We dont anticipate that the spill will hit the shores, but for the clean up to be effective, we will need six weeks. This is because the waters arent still waters. They move with the oil, the minister noted.Mailafea, the Director-General, NOSDRA, Mr. Peter Idabor; and Deputy-Director, NIMASA, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, had flown offshore to review the cleanup efforts in response to the oil leak.
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