The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) says a Joint Investigative Visit (JIV) into the July 27 oil spill from its facility at Imiringi community in Bayelsa revealed that the leak was caused by sabotage by oil thieves.

JIV is a statutory probe that follows every reported spill incident by regulators, operator, community representatives to ascerain the cause, volume of spill and impacted area.

A statement by Mr Bamidele Odugbesan , Media Relations Manager, SPDC on Wednesday indicated that three barrels of SPDC’s Bonny light crude blend was spilled into the environment.

Although members of the Imiringi community had claimed that the spill had polluted farmlands and waterbodies in the area, SPDC said that the entire three barrels had been recovered leaving a residue.

“SPDC, operator of the SPDC JV, acknowledges the occurrence of an oil spill from its 4’’ Kolo creek Well 22T flowline facility at Imiringi on July 27, 2024.

“The report of the Joint Investigation of the incident led by the Government Regulator, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), found that the incident was caused by illegal third-party activity.

“Meanwhile, cleanup, remediation and repair of the breached pipeline are ongoing.” the SPDC stated.

It was learnt that the JIV commenced and concluded on July 30 with all the parties unanimously agreeing on the cause while repairs on the breached pipeline are ongoing.

According to SPDC, the JIV team comprised of the Government Regulator, Nigerian Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Also on the team are, State Ministry of Environment, representatives of the impacted community and SPDC.

The oil firm stated that the outcome and report of the investigation, led by the Regulator, NOSDRA, was signed off by all members of the JIV team.

It will be recalled that environmental advocacy advocacy group, Environmental Defenders Network had called for clean up of the spill site to forestall the possible spread to other communities in the area.

Chief Lagos Morris, Deputy Director of the group who visited the spill site, urged the relevant authorities to see to the remediation of the impacted area in view of the rains.

Morris, who called on all stakeholders to work towards preventing third party spills, condemned the act and urged that the perpetrators be fished out and prosecuted.