‘Cleaned’ Nigerian sites still blighted by oil as Shell's efforts to contain spills makes slow progress, says report

May 26:

Shell's efforts to contain spills in Nigeria are making stuttering progress, with supposedly restored sites still mired in oil, a new report warns.

Difficulty with stopping spills, often caused by oil theft from pipelines, further illustrates why Shell has opted to sell four major onshore blocks in Nigeria.

Swathes of land and waterways in the Niger Delta are once again blighted with oil only months on from Shell’s clean-up efforts, claims campaign group Platform.

Oil spill: Swathes of land and waterways in the Niger Delta are once again blighted with oil only months on from Shell's clean-up efforts

In Bomu, part of the spill-ravaged Ogoniland region, Shell said in 2012 that it had ‘remediated’ sites including those near the Bomu well.

But visitors from Platform in late 2013 found that oil pollution there remained extremely bad. ‘Our field investigations discovered visible oil only centimetres below the surface,’ the group said.

‘Soil samples taken by Platform have a strong odour of oil. Adjoining creeks had a layer of oil on the surface of the water.’

 

Source: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2639859/Cleaned-Nigerian-sites-blighted-oil-Shells-efforts-contain-spills-makes-slow-progress.html?