Philip Nyam 
The Ministry of Environment has disagreed with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) over the approval to carry out barging activities for an oil company, Aiteo E and P, operating in Nembe in Bayelsa State.
Representatives of the company at a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Environment said it got approval from NUPRC to barge, which means transporting crude from their facility in Nembe through the Brass River out to the Atlantic Ocean.
Chief Operating Officer, Aiteo, Ewarezi Useh said it was a temporary measure, which started last year borne out of necessity due to the activities of vandals on the pipelines.
“Barging was a very difficult decision for not just us but for the joint venture. It was a joint venture decision between Aiteo as an operator and NNPCL as an alternative way of getting our crude out.
” We got to a point we stopped production for up to two years due to activities of vandals. It was due to incessant vandalisation of the crude transport line from the facility in Nembe. We could not get out the crude to the markets. What is affecting the production of the country today is such vandalisation and incessant thefts on facilities.
“So barging was out of necessity not just for the survival of the company but a national issue as the only way we could crude out of their facility to the market for the Nigerian people. Based on that, the joint venture agreed that we should go ahead as an interim measure pending when the security is restored and we can go back to full pipeline measure.
“We had to go ahead to look for approval from an alternative evacuation route and it was a process of evacuating the crude from Nembe all the way to Bonny which is about a 100km line.
“Various scenarios were put together and it took us two years of various scenario analysis and work done with the NNPCL. In the interim, it was a survival situation. All the necessary applications were made from the Minister of Petroleum to the regulator, NUPRC to various bodies for us to commence barging as an interim measure which is what we started”.
However, the Ministry of Environment insisted that Aiteo does not have valid approval to carry out their barging activities in Nembe.
He said, “The EIA approval did not cover barging. Records available to the Ministry indicate the approval only covered the installation of a 54km crude oil pipeline and a 14 storage platform with a capacity of 3.5 million barrels. It did not cover barging.”
Chairman of the committee, Pondi Gbabador, queried the inconsistencies in the approvals between government agencies over the same issue.
Responding to enquiries, the Manager of Health Safety and Environment, Aiteo, Augustina Bisong, said their activities do not damage the environment as all considerations have been made to address such.
The Director General of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Engr Chukwuemeka in his presentation said there has been no incident of oil spillage since the operation commenced.
