Oil spill at Egina FPSO facility not minor, clean-up ongoing, says NOSDRA

The National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) says the crude oil spill incident at Egina floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) Rivers facility was not minor.

On November 15, 2023, a crude oil spill incident occurred during loading operations in Egina FPSO.

The 220,000 metric tons FPSO facility is operated by TotalEnergies in Port Harcourt, Rivers state.

The incident was later confirmed on Thursday, in a statement by Edward Osagie, head of public relations at the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

Speaking on the incident to NAN on Sunday, Idris Musa, director-general of NOSDRA, said about 3,000 barrels of crude oil were lost during the incident and clean-up is ongoing.

Musa said the agency and TotalEnergies did not spare any effort in tackling the pollution to minimise its impact on the environment.

According to Musa, NOSDRA deployed high-level personnel and activated the national oil spill contingency plan to contain the spill.

“The spill has not hit the coastline because of the effectiveness of the spill contingency plan we deployed,” he said.

“The spill was not a minor one; it was the response strategy put in place that resulted in limited impact and we have been tracing and tracking the oil slick and supervising response efforts.

“NOSDRA deployed personnel led by a director to the site and we have remained on the spill site as well as granting the requisite approvals to hasten the response.”

Musa further said TotalEnergies took steps that made the response swift and effective, adding that other oil companies assisted in the response.

He said spill clean-up required a collaborative response from oil industry stakeholders, which, in this case, deployed aircraft, and at least five vessels in the application of 15,000 litres of liquids to clean the waters. 

However, while Musa said the oil spill was not minor, last week, TotalEnergies said it was not a massive leak.

Charles Ebereonwu, the company’s country communication manager, said the incident did not affect crude oil production at the facility and no shoreline or communities have been impacted.