The Ministry of Environment has disagreed with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) over the approval to carry out barging activities for an oil company Aiteo E and P, operating in Nembe in Bayelsa state.

Representatives of the company at a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Environment said it got approval from NUPRC to barge, which means transporting crude from their facility in Nembe through the Brass River out to the Atlantic Ocean.

The hearing was to probe the environmental impact of transporting crude oil by mega seagoing vessels from Nembe Creek Trunk to offshore crude oil storage in the Atlantic Ocean by Aiteo E and P, as well as the oil spillage in Olugboboro Community in Southern Ijaw Bayelsa State from Nigerian Agip Oil Company (now Oando Oil Ltd) facility.

Chief Operating Officer, Aieto, Ewarezi Useh Aieto said it was a temporary measure that started last year borne out of necessity due to the activities of vandals on the pipelines.

However, the representative of the Minister of Environment, Dr Musa Gashau, said the approval given to the company to operate did not include barging activities.

Chairman of the committee, Pondi Gbabador, queried the inconsistencies in the approvals between government agencies over the same issue.

Useh said they had no other option else they would shut down production.

?Barging was a very difficult decision for not just us but for the joint venture. It was a joint venture decision between Aiteo as an operator and NNPCL as an alternative way of getting our crude out. We got to a point where we stopped production for up to two years due to the activities of vandals. It was due to incessant vandalization of the crude transport line from the facility in November. We could not get out the crude to the markets. What is affecting the production of the country today is such vandalization and incessant theft of facilities.

?So barging was out of necessity not just for the survival of the company but a national issue as the only way we could crude out of their facility to the market for the Nigerian people. Based on that, the joint venture agreed that we should go ahead as an interim measure pending when the security is restored and we can go back to full pipeline measure.

?We had to go ahead to look for approval from an alternative evacuation route and it was a process of evacuating the crude from Nembe to Bonny which is about a 100km line.

?Various scenarios were put together and it took us two years of various scenario analysis and work done with the NNPCL. In the interim, it was a survival situation. All the necessary applications were made from the Minister of Petroleum to the regulator, NUPRC to various bodies for us to commence barging as an interim measure which is what we started.

?We started last year and this was to ensure we got back to full production. It is our hope that the security agencies will address the problems because the best method is the pipeline method. We would return to pipelines as soon as possible. Barging would not be an endless process but just in the interim to ensure that for now there is full production as an interim measure for the good of the country and stakeholders. That is where we are and that is what has brought us to where we are.

At the time agreed for the barging, the Aiteo woman said the Environment Impact Assessment, which was approved has a lifespan of five years and it was gotten in November 2020.

She said it was still valid.

However, the Ministry of Environment insisted that Aieto does not have valid approval to carry out its barging activities in Nembe.

He said: ?The Eia approval did not cover barging. Records available to the Ministry indicate the approval only covered the installation of a 54km crude oil pipeline and a 14 storage platform with a capacity of 3.5 million barrels. It did not cover barging.?

Aiteek woman said for the agreement with the Ministry of Environment, barging was not part of the agreement, but the NUPRC which is also a regulator went through all the whole hog of getting all the requirements for barging crude.

?From the housing workshop to the safety case to all that needed to be done to have all the environmental considerations made, NUPRC has our approval for that.

Even as we barge till date before any barge moves out, we need to get clearance from NUPRC that also checks that environmental considerations before the barged is moved,?

Responding to enquiries, the manager of health safety and environment, Aiteo, Augustina Amaka Bisong, said their activities do not damage the environment as all considerations have been made to address such.

She said there was no spillage in the entire process.

Useh added: ?We have an operations tunnel so there?s no spillage in the entire process. Any spill that you would have NOSDRA is here and would tell you and give you the dossier of the spills we have around. 99 percent of them are third-party infractions from mostly vandals and thieves, who have come to steal crude. Like I said, it is a sorry situation. No operator sets out to want to be a barging operator. It is a herculean task and it is extremely difficult. It is a logistics nightmare. It is a child of necessity.

?Barging is routeway through the Brass River from the facility. It?s a ship and once it?s loaded, it?s loaded until it gets to the Atlantic Ocean. There are no spillages on the way.?

He said they are supposed to be a 120, 000 barrels producing facility but because of the theft and even with the barging, they are struggling to do between 30, 000 and 40, 000 right now.

?It got to a point that a point we had to stop operations for almost two years. Due to the activities of vandals. These are responsible for the poor crude production numbers of the country,? he said.

The Director General of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Engr Chukwuemeka, said there has been no incident of oil spillage since the operation commenced.

However, the committee expressed reservations about the claim that their activities did not have adverse effects on the environment.

It resolved to embark on an oversight to have first-hand information about the true state of things for further necessary legislative actions.

Also, the Deputy Manager of Environment Oando, Akuduro Philip, called for legislative support to address the issue of oil theft and vandalism which he said have far-reaching consequences.

He said they operate in four states including Bayelsa and statistics show that about 90 percent of all their spill events are caused by third-party interferences on their facilities.

He further said particularly in Bayelsa State 80 percent of spillage is within Southern Ijaw, where Olugboboro Community is.

?And we are asking for the intervention of this honourable house in whatever way. Because it?s not an ordinary statistic that a country that used to produce up to 2.2 million barrels is now lagging by less than 1.5 million barrels. That?s not a fictitious record. It is caused by the active operation of vandals across oil facilities, especially those like Oandu that are operating in land and swamps,? he said. (The Nation)

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