Agency reviews oil spill response guidelines
To
improve its effectiveness in handling oil spill incidents in the
country, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency will
carry out a comprehensive review and validation of its guidelines on
oil spill management and environmental damage assessment.
The review, to be
carried out as part of a two-day workshop scheduled to hold in Abuja
next week, would afford operators in the oil industry an opportunity to
make critical inputs to validate the guidelines developed by NOSDRA in
collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The guidelines
comprise regulations and standards for oil spill recovery, clean-up and
remediation, damage assessment and environmental regulations in the
country’s petroleum sector.
On several
occasions in the past, the agency has been called to question when
there are oil spills in the Niger Delta over its failure to mete out
appropriate sanctions to offending international oil companies.
Contracts for the
development of the guidelines were awarded in 2009 to University of
Lagos (UNILAG) Consult and Jawura Environmental Services Limited.
Henshaw Ogubike,
its head of Public Affairs, said the draft reports of the two documents
submitted to NOSDRA would form part of a comprehensive environmental
best practices guidelines for the agency and others in the oil and gas
sector, to guarantee confidence in the sector through enhanced
performance.
In a related
development, Mr. Ogubike said that part of agency’s effort to check oil
spillage in Niger Delta, it plans to inaugurate a committee on
environmental sensitization or awareness campaign in the region.
The need for the
committee emerged during the recent meeting between the Minister of
Environment, John Odey, with oil and gas industry captains,
international oil companies and the media as part of strategies to
raise environmental awareness among operators and residents in the
oil-producing areas.
Mr. Ogubike said that the inauguration of the committee follows a
number of measures by NOSDRA to control oil spills in the region,
including series of meetings with oil companies and the recent
launching of the Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) mapping for use
by the companies in response to spills in coastal areas.
You do not award contract for review and developement of regulatory guidlines, its better done by a committee set up by Federal Government which will involve all the major stakeholders and operators.