Dan Sharpe's latest column for the GfGD blog looks at the problems that come from poorly reported oil spills in the developing world, and how geoscientists can address this.
In September 2008, the
lives of 69,000 people living in and around Bodo, Nigeria, began to change permanently.
It was rumoured that oil was first spotted in the marshes around the region in
August, but Shell contested that the leak officially occurred in September that
year. I mentioned this oil spill in passing as part of my blog “Oil in Society- Exploring for Sustainability” and felt this story deserved its own report.
“We
could smell the oil long before we saw it – the stench of garage forecourts and
rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air” explained John Vidal -
environmental editor for The Observer - in his article on this subject. The
leak occurred on a section of the 50 year-old trans-Niger pipeline that
transports up to 120,000 barrels of oil every day. At the height of the crisis
Shell admitted that as much as 2,000 barrels per day was leaking directly into
the water system. Of course nobody questioned this at the time, after-all no
news crews or NGOs were there investigating this incident. A later assessment
by the independent oil spill consultancy company Accufacts suggested that as
much as 311,000 barrels may have been leaked into the creaks near Bodo.
The spill continued
right through to mid-November that year when the leak was fixed, however just a
month later another leak was discovered along the pipeline this time above an
area of marsh. The second leak did not start to be fixed or even evaluated
until late February the next year, but this is just a part of the issue I am
aiming to convey here.
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| Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico (Source: NASA/GSFC) |
I am guessing all who
read this will be fully aware of the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but how
many have heard of the Bodo spill? Hidden away in Africa, news teams fleetingly
visited the site of the crisis but this was not front page news; at least not
for long. And how many know there has been another spill more recently? I
certainly did not.
This latest incident
has leaked as much as 2 million gallons of oil into the ocean just off the
coast of Nigeria in an incident that has capped over 50 years of spoilage from
the hydrocarbons industry. So why is it that nobody hears of the oil spills
here? 13 out of the top 17 oil fields are in the Middle East and yet no news is
told of the environmental consequences of the hydrocarbons industry here. Six
of the top ten oil spills have occurred in the Middle East, however it is those
in the North Sea and east coast of the States that we hear about.
This lack of news
coverage is a problem, and geoscientists must determine what they can do to publicise and address
these problems. The first stage should involve independent
consultancy companies assessing these spills and monitoring companies working
in more remote locations. This should go hand-in-hand with geoscientists encouraging science journalists to publicise and report their findings, in partnership with
the more formal reports released by oil companies. These actions will help to raise public awareness and put pressure on the oil companies and local governments to
tighten up on the frequency, size and recovery of leaks. Further work may involve
geological engineering to produce new equipment, or the use of further independent
consultancies to give guidance on how to better manage the equipment already being used.
Who will pay for all this? Well it is no secret that the oil industry is lucrative
business, and in times of increasing ‘green’ awareness the public opinion of
large oil producing firms is becoming more and more important. It is surely the
responsibility of the oil companies to curb the size and number of leaks that
occur throughout the developing world, and geoscientists play a fundamental
role in all stages of doing this. Together these efforts can improve the
efficiency of the oil industry, and improve the quality of life of people
living in and around producing oil fields.
Further Reading:
