TotalEnergies Egina Spill: Environmentalists raise concern on bio-safety of dispersants

Some environmen talists have expressed concern on the bio-safety, toxicity of dispersants used to mop up oil spills from offshore waters with fishes and other marine creatures.

They spoke to journalists on Monday in Yenagoa.

The concern is coming as International Oil Companies (IOCs) divest from onshore assets for offshore fields.

Dispersants are chemicals applied to oil spills to break down the oil molecules.

The environmentalists were reacting to the Nov. 15 leak from the Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel operated by TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies had in a statement issued one week after the incident described the oil leak as minor with no adverse impact on shoreline settlements.

However, Mr Idris Musa, the Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), said that 3,000 barrels of crude was discharged into the Atlantic waters in the incident caused by an export hose failure.

He said that NOSDRA’s response efforts made the difference as an aircraft and five vessels were used to apply 15,000 litres of dispersants to mop up the leaked crude.

Dr Nnimmo Bassey, a renowned environmentalist in a reaction to the incident, said that IOCs seem to prefer the ‘remote’ location of offshore oil fields for exploration.

According to him, this is because offshore oil fields shielded them from scrutiny of regulators and communities.

He said it was regrettable that after several decades of polluting our onshore fields, the IOCs were going offshore without cleaning up.

Bassey said that dispersants were toxic and not safe for aquatic life.

According to him, dispersants are known to be toxic to aquatic life which forms part of the food chain.

“The use of dispersants is mainly to hide the impact of oil spills from view.

“As the name says, they disperse but do not eliminate or remove the spills. It is known that chemicals remain in the aquatic ecosystem with some staying on the seabed.

“These dispersants have an impact on aquatic species and by extension they also cause injury to human health.”

Bassey wondered why it took TotalEnergies over one week to confirm the operational mishap if not a failed attempt to cover up and called for transparency and more stringent regulation at offshore fields.

According to Chief Alagoa Morris, Head of Field Operations at Environmental Rights Action (ERA) in Bayelsa, dispersants are not conducive to life.

“The thing is that these chemicals called dispersant used by the oil companies to reduce the quantity of spilled crude oil or sink the crude oil are not properly identified by stakeholders or experts to enable informed conclusions.

“It is one of the ‘smart ways’ deployed by the polluters to be evasive, taking advantage of not having regulators or environmental NGOs within the particular location at that point in time.

“We in ERA have received several such complaints of inappropriate use of dispersants from community folks in Ogboinbiri, Odioama, and Ikarama.

“The use of dispersants is not an alternative for cleanup or remediation.

“We have had instances where cleanup contractors apply detergents as dispersants at Okpotuwari and Ikebiri environment in Olodiama Clan of Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of Bayelsa .

“In most cases, dispersants either cause the crude oil to coagulate and sink or break down the molecules, leaving it still in the environment leading to environmental degradation,” Morris said.

Rev. Samuel Ayadi, the Niger Delta Coordinator of Artisanal Fishermen Association, said that chemical dispersants used to tackle spills were poisonous to fish as well as wipe out generations of fish species.

“The chemicals they call dispersant are poisonous, it not only kills fishes but when the coagulated crude sinks to the seabed where fish breeds, it wipes out the eggs as well and that is like an epidemic.

“The dispersants they used on the spill at Egina will cause hardship to fishes and fishing activities in the Niger Delta for a long time starting with prolonged fish scarcity.

“Any fish that encounters the dispersant is poisoned and contaminated and poses danger to public health.

“The ones that survive will migrate deeper out of Nigerian territorial waters where artisan fishermen cannot reach,” Ayadi said.

Ayadi urged the regulators to compel TotalEnergies to conduct toxicological tests to ascertain the biosafety levels in the Atlantic waters around the Niger Delta region.