The Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has expressed concern over the continued discharge of crude oil and associated pollutants from a damaged oil well in Uzere Kingdom, Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, more than five weeks after the incident occurred.
The environmental organisation, in a field assessment report released on Monday, said the blowout occurred on June 26 at Well 14 in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 30, operated by Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited, and warned that the delayed response poses serious environmental, economic and public health risks.
According to HOMEF, the damaged wellhead, located close to farmlands, fish ponds and a gas flare facility, continues to release crude oil, gas and other petroleum substances into the environment despite repeated calls by the host community for urgent intervention.
The organisation said community leaders who visited the site shortly after the incident were informed by company engineers that the blowout resulted from equipment failure caused by excessive pressure.
Chairman of the Uzere Oil and Gas Committee, Sylvanus Evroro, said the community immediately demanded that the company contain the incident but alleged that efforts to stop the uncontrolled discharge had been unsuccessful.
He warned that the situation could worsen with the onset of the annual flooding season.
According to him, if the blowout is not contained before the heavy rains intensify, crude oil could spread across farmlands, rivers, swamps and fishing grounds, threatening the livelihoods of residents who depend largely on farming and fishing.
HOMEF noted that Uzere Kingdom, one of Nigeria’s oldest oil-producing communities where commercial oil production began in 1957, produces about 53,000 barrels of crude oil daily from the Uzere East and Uzere West oil fields.
The organisation said the community is still recovering from the devastating floods of 2012 and 2022, making the latest environmental incident even more worrying.
The report further stated that Heritage Energy reportedly notified the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) almost two weeks after the blowout.
Community members told HOMEF that officials of the agency later visited the site and allegedly attributed the incident to poor maintenance of the operator’s equipment. However, residents claimed that no effective containment or environmental remediation had commenced as of the time of the assessment.
HOMEF disclosed that its delegation, accompanied by members of the Uzere community leadership, was denied access to the affected site by security personnel who insisted that approval must first be obtained from Heritage Energy’s office in Edjeba, Warri.
As a result, the organisation said its findings were based on eyewitness accounts, photographs and video evidence supplied by community leaders. It also noted that no Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) report was made available during the assessment.
The environmental group called on Heritage Energy to immediately contain the blowout using internationally accepted emergency response measures and commence comprehensive cleanup and remediation of the impacted environment.
It also urged the company to repair or replace deteriorated oil infrastructure and grant unrestricted access to regulators, host communities and independent observers to promote transparency.
HOMEF further called on NOSDRA to conduct and publicly release the findings of a Joint Investigation Visit, enforce regulatory compliance and ensure proper environmental remediation.
The organisation also urged the Delta State Ministry of Environment and other relevant agencies to carry out independent environmental and public health assessments to determine the full extent of the contamination.
In addition, HOMEF appealed to the Federal and Delta State governments to ensure that affected residents receive adequate compensation, livelihood restoration and long-term environmental monitoring until the ecosystem is fully restored.
NOSDRA Responds
When contacted on Wednesday, the Zonal Head of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) in Warri, Kenneth Ogeibiri, said containment efforts were ongoing.
He said the agency had visited the site twice and was awaiting the arrival of additional personnel expected by the operating company before carrying out a further assessment.
According to him, officials from both the Abuja headquarters and the Warri zonal office were expected to visit the site to ascertain the current situation.
Responding to concerns over the length of time it had taken to contain the blowout since June 26, Ogeibiri said the Joint Investigation Visit had already been conducted.
He explained that the operator was implementing the recommendations arising from the investigation and that the outcome would be communicated in due course.
On why the Joint Investigation Visit report had not been made public or uploaded to the agency’s Oil Spill Monitor portal, the NOSDRA official described the matter as official, without giving further details.
Efforts to obtain Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited’s response to the allegations contained in HOMEF’s report were unsuccessful as of the time of filing this report.
