Bayelsa community sacked by explosion from Oil firm’s facility laments, seeks assistance 

The people of Sangana Community, in Brass Local Government of Bayelsa, have solicited for aid following a gas leak from a Conoil facility which occurred on Oct. 31 and posed a serious threat to their lives.

The community expressed their anxieties and concerns at a press conference in Yenagoa, on Wednesday, over the insensitivity of Conoil.

Chairman, Sangana Fishing Union, Ikomikumo Noel, said that the gas leak had compelled residents to flee, abandoning the community.

He said that while most of the community members, who lived near the Conoil field and rig, had relocated to  safer places and some had run to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa capital, to seek refuge.

Recall that a gas leak following an explosion on the facility, operated by Conoil, off the Atlantic shores in Sangana, had occurred on Oct.31.

Narrating their ordeal, the chairman recalled that there was also a major gas leak in 2017, during which fishermen quickly mobilized themselves and rescued everybody on the rig.

Disclosing that there was no vessel provided to rescue personnel that day, the chairman said: “We mobilized our the team of local fire fighters from the community.

“They went and shut down the fire from Conoil facility, but later regretted that after that, Conoil pretended as if  they didn’t do anything.

“They didn’t pay compensation. They didn’t do anything.

“Yet on 3rd of September, 2020, there was another gas leak, and our fishermen went there to stop the fire but they couldn’t do it. Now anytime you go there, there is always a spill and all the fishes have died.

“There is no way we as fishermen can cope, they are continuously constituting nuisance in the oil field.

“Yet on 31st October 2021, another one happened. As we speak I don’t know when I will die because if you see what is happening in the sea, you will have pity for us.

“The gas is flowing directly to the community, flowing into the sea and killing aquatic animals, fishes are dying in their numbers. Every day, we are picking dead fish.

“We are afraid and we are telling our children not to pick again. Gas is still leaking as we speak. We are in danger.”

Also speaking, Biebelemo Jonathan, the Woman Leader of the community said that old women and children cannot go the river again.

She said, “There is no way to bathe. No way to drink water. My women are suffering.

“Our grandmothers, our children no way to bath now as I speak to you and no way to go to the river and catch fish.”

Furoebi Akene, the Chief Operating Officer, Centre for Environmental Development based in Yenagoa, said that the relevant authorities should come to the aid of the community, because the effect of the gas leak was very enormous.

He said, “The lives of the people inhaling that gas are in danger but the real effect on human beings can only be ascertained when we take a laboratory analysis of the gas in the immediate environment.

“The health hazards on the indigenes are enormous. We are suffering this thing in the Niger Delta because our state is not serious about it.

“The federal government and the regulation agencies are also not serious about it.”

Efforts to get a reaction from officials of the oil firm were futile as they rebuffed requests for comments. In particular, Mr Abiodun Azeez, Media Relations Manager at Conoil declined to respond.

All efforts to get the reaction of the oil firm by e-mail, short message services (SMS) and telephone calls had gone unanswered.

Mr Idris Musa, Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) could also not be reached on his mobile phone for comments on the incident, as several calls made could not connect.

However, recall that the NOSDRA’s DG had in a reaction to a similar incident, at the same location within Conoil’s field on Dec. 2, 2020, berated the company for operating in breach of regulatory guidelines.

Musa had said that Conoil had the habit of causing avoidable spills and had previously been sanctioned for degrading the environment.

“This oil company has been spilling oil for a period of time now, from our findings, it is from an underwater pipeline under pressure creating bubbles on the water surface.

“All the directives given to it to contain the oil spill, shut down and replace the leaking pipeline, near the shore in Sangana, Bayelsa, fell on deaf ears.

“The agency sanctioned the company for this untoward act, but nothing has changed. The leakage continues and the oil company behaves irresponsibly even though it is a Nigerian oil firm,” Musa said.

According to information on Conoil’s website, the facility, a mobile offshore production unit commissioned in 1999, has the capacity to produce 80,000 barrels of crude oil.