Oil spills remain one of the most serious environmental risks in the industry. Yet, the problem of clean-up remains unsolved. But there is hope of tackling the challenge. DANIEL ESSIET looks at the prospects of using a plant called kenaf to address the issue.
HOW do we clean up environments affected by oil spills. This is the question which disturbs experts.
As more and more companies venture into the rich oil and gas industry, they are being forced to imagine another oil spill scenario. Such considerations have led to the development of new technologies to detect and deal with spilled oil. As they push into environmentally deeper waters in search of oil, there is always pressure on them to demonstrate they could mop up spilt oil when it occurs.
Big spills, such as BP PLC’s 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico cost the company so much in expenses. BP has already spent $14 billion on clean-up operations, paid out over $8 billion in claims and offered a further $7.8 billion in settlement to those affected by the disaster.
While organisations are putting most of their efforts into ensuring there isn’t a spill in the first place, including establishing a series of barriers, such as the blowout preventer that sits on the sea floor at the well-head, to guard against , the industry has ramped up funding to improve response technology after other major spills.
It takes millions of dollars to carry out clean up. So far, there is technology to suck up surface oil pools . But the challenge is in addressing the smaller amounts of oil left behind — that which isn’t easily removed from sand and water. It is this small percentage of oil that sits under rocks and forms a thin film on the water’s surface. When cleanup crews reduce the amount of oil at sea, there will be enough left behind to kill birds and wildlife. According to experts, while the million barrels of oil spilled into sea or the environment may an ecological disaster, the millions of gallons of dispersant used to clean it up apparently made it even worse — 52-times more toxic. That’s according to new research from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Universidad Autonoma de Aguascalientes (UAA), Mexico. The study found that mixing the dispersant with oil increased toxicity of the mixture up to 52-fold over the oil alone. Dispersants are preapproved to help clean up oil spills and are widely used during disasters.To accelerate dispersion and enhance breakdown of the oil by microorganisms, gallons of the dispersant are sprayed on the surface of the spill and applied at the underwater source of the leak. Concerns are raised about the safety of dispersants for wildlife, plants, and humans alike. Oysters, shrimp, and other delicacies could bioaccumulate oil or dispersant in their tissues, so eating contaminated shellfish presents one possible route by which humans could be exposed.
With millions of gallons crude oil being spewed into oceans , the leader of the United States Alumni Engagement Innovation Team, Dr. Morufat Balogun, warned against the use of chemical dispersant so as not to make a bad situation even worse.
To contain the spreading oil slick and keep it from polluting the fragile ecosystems , clean-up crews deploy an array of chemical dispersants, oil skimmers and booms. They have also attempted to burn off some of the surface oil. Such aggressive clean-up efforts are fraught with unintended consequences.This is because the concentration of detergents and other chemicals used to clean up sites contaminated by oil spills can cause environmental nightmares of their own. She advocated the use of a local plant kenaf in the clean-up of environments ravaged by oil spills. She said the plant grown in the northern part of the country was environmental- friendly and could help in tackling the problem of oil spills in the Niger Delta. Balogun, who lectures at the Department of Crop Protection and Environmental Biology, University of Ibadan, said kenaf could be used as an absorbent material in cleaning oil spills. To further the cause, the United States Alumni Engagement Innovation Team on the Kenaf Clean-Up Project held a Stakeholders’ workshop on ‘Clean the Spills: Going Green in the Niger Delta’.
The workshop urged the oil companies to support the use of kenaf as a locally available, safe and environmentally friendly alternative .
The workshop noted that the Niger Delta is one of the world’s largest wetlands covering over 20,000km2 and is one of the most endowed deltas in the world in both human and material resources.
The workshop lamented the fact that Nigeria has over 4,835 reported incidents of oil spills. Significantly a vast majority of these spills (about 1.89 million barrels out of 2.4 million barrels) occurred in the Niger Delta between 1976 and 1996).The largest spill, Bonga spill, covered an area of more than 923 square kilometres, and no lesser than 40,000 barrels of crude, was spilled into the Atlantic Ocean in 2011.
The workshop urged oil companies to sponsor the adoption and utilisation of Kenaf in local entrepreneurship and farm activities as part of a holistic community engagement strategy beyond oil spill remediation.
Participants were drawn from the academia, farmers, media, civil society groups, ministries, departments and agencies of governments at all levels. It offered an opportunity for the presentation of papers on the use of the kenaf plants as well as practical demonstration of the use of the plant.
The Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund of the Alumni Office, United States Department of State, the University of Ibadan, Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) jointly sponsored the event.
Senate’s action
The Senate said Nigeria has the highest number of oil spills among oil producing countries with no penalty regime attached. It noted that the level of spills in the country was a reflection of the disregard on our environment and the dignity of our people. Declaring open a public hearing on National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency(NOSDRA), Amendment Bill 2012 in Abuja by Senate Joint Committee on Environment and Ecology;Chairman of the committee, Senator Bukola Saraki said oil spill had become an irresponsible environmental behaviour and reckless waste of the people’s wealth and benefit, adding that it was high time multinational oil companies stopped oil spills.
Saraki said the move had become imperative against the backdrop of its devastating effect on the environment and livelihood of the people, even as he lamented that the statistics of oil spills in the country was “shameful” while the impact on the environment is “offensive.”
He said the Bill entitled: “An Act to amend the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) establishment, etc, Act 2006 and for other matters connected therewith” was designed among others to redress the legal loopholes in the existing Act.
He said: “Oil spill is ravaging our environment and has become one of the greatest threats to our sustainable development. This amendment Bill is a clarion call to us all, to put a stop to this.
“The statistics of oil spills in Nigeria is shameful; the impact on the environment is offensive. It can no longer be business as usual. Without a doubt, oil spillage is dealt with all over the world as an environmental issue and a human right issue that goes to the quality of the environment and the value of life of those impacted by spills.
“It is erroneous to continue to view oil spills as a necessary consequence of oil exploration.”
Saraki ,who stressed that the Act setting up NOSDRA was deficient to meet challenges posed by oil spills and at such a better legal framework was required, said: “This bill seeks to cure the observed deficiency in the previous law bytweaking the institutional framework for oil spill management and regulation to make it more efficient.
Our objective is to reverse the ugly trend of endless spilling and devastation of our environment and the repugnant impact on our people.”
