A fresh oil spill and a resulting fire has hit an area of Nigeria's main oil-producing region after suspected sabotage to a Shell pipeline, an activist and residents said Sunday. The fire along the Okordia-Rumuekpe Trunkline began several days ago and has since been put out in the area of the Ikarama community in Bayelsa state, located in the Niger Delta region.
"The fire has been put out by Shell," said Morris Alagoa of Environmental Rights Action. "But still the crude all around the farmlands has not been cleared..."
It was unclear how much oil was spilled. Residents said the incident appeared to result from sabotage. Shell did not respond to requests for comment on Sunday, but a spokesman had previously spoken of a fire on the trunkline that "appeared to have been ignited by unknown persons at a previous spill point."
Pipeline damage and associated spills are common in the Niger Delta region as a result of oil theft to feed the lucrative black market. Militants have also regularly blown up pipelines, though such attacks have decreased since a 2009 amnesty deal. Activists say oil firms such as Shell have not done enough to prevent such incidents.
A UN report earlier this month said decades of oil pollution in the Ogoniland area of the Niger Delta, located in neighbouring Rivers state, may require the world's largest ever cleanup. Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and the continent's most populous nation.
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