Oil spill from Agip’s Brass Terminal pollutes Atlantic Ocean

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A man walks on slippery spilled crude oil on the shores and in the waters of the Niger Delta swamps of Bodo, a village in the famous Nigerian oil-producing Ogoniland. AFP

An oil spill from the Brass Oil Export Terminal, operated by the Agip off the Nigerian Coastline in Bayelsa state, has discharged a yet to be ascertained volume of crude into the Atlantic ocean.

Mr Henshaw Oguwike, Chief Information Officer at National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday.

“The incident occurred on Thursday and our team is already at the spill site, so, I can tell you that investigations have commenced and by the time our men come back from the site, more facts will be made available.” Oguwike said.

He said that the ongoing investigation would reveal the cause of the spill and the volume of crude discharged into the environment.

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The NOSDRA spokesman said that the agency had also deployed its newly acquired oil spill response vessel to combat the spill.

The oil discharged from the incident had spread along the coastline to Odioama and other coastal communities in Bayelsa near the oil terminal.

Community sources in Odioama told NAN on telephone that the waters along the Atlantic coastline were covered by a thick coat of oil which compelled them to suspend fishing.

“We started noticing oil on Friday and soon afterward we saw oil workers attempting to contain the oil from spreading, but it was far more than they could handle so we had to pull out of fishing,” Doubra Samson, a resident said.

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