Delta: Heritage Energy Debunks Unfactual Reports On Ekpan Oil Spill
LAGOS DECEMBER 3RD (NEWSRANGERS)-The operator of Oil Mining Lease OML30, Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited, has debunked the unfactual and misleading reports on the oil spill incident in Ekpan community, a pipeline host community to the company.
Heritage’s Community Relation Department, in a statementmade available to NewsRangers yesterday, said the reports in the media that the company ignored the concerns of residents about the spillage was not true, because the firm had actually been proactive in its response to the spill.
The statement obtained said, ” the oil spill incident was reported on the 22nd of September 2019, along the 24” Trans-Forcados Pipeline (TFP) at Ekpan and as soon as the company received the information, it immediately (on the same day) commenced the recovery of free-phase oil after digging retention pits in line with regulation and industry best practice in Oil spill management..
” The incident was immediately reported to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) within the mandatory 24 hours reporting timeline. A Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) was schedule for the next day (23/09/19) by all stakeholders. The joint inspection visit confirmed that the spill was caused by a ‘clamp failure’ (a leak from a previous clamp point). The visit also confirmed that the spill impacted on areas both within and outside of the company’s right-of-way (ROW).”
The company further clarified that in line with industry practice which recommends that qualified vendors from within the community are used for such clean ups, it approached the Ekpan community to submit a list of qualified spill clean-up vendors to bid for the cleanup/remediation of the impacted area. Unfortunately however, none of the vendors in the list possess the mandatory regulatory permits to carry out such projects.
“The company informed the community that they could not appoint unqualified contractors to do the clean up as this is against the requirements of the law, and a new list of vendors was only sent to the company in November and it has since commenced the contracting process to mobilize a cleanup contractor to the site, while the company shares the concerns of the residents in the area and will put in its best efforts to ensure that the impact of the spill on the community is kept at the barest minimum.
” The company is committed to conducting its business activities safely, to minimize risk to its employees, contractors, communities and anyone else who may be affected by its operations. Also to achieve this commitment, HEOSL manages Health Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) in the same way as any other critical business activity, regularly sets HSEQ performance objectives, measures results and continually improves processes using an effective management system, and also a very comprehensive HSEQ Policy that as a minimum is reviewed once every other year,” the statement read.
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