Anxiety as Buguma Fire Outbreaks on Pipelines Causes Severe Damage Amid Growing Tension in The Area-HOSTCON
By Fiawei Pathfinder
Youth Council Members in the Oil and Gas Host Communities of the Niger Delta under the umbrella of (HOSTCON,) issued a statement weekend condemning what it described as insensitive on approach adopted by the NNPCL during the recent fire outbreak on pipelines.
The statement read in part stating that “following the outbreak of fire at Buguma wellhead 008, operated by NNPCL/SPDC Joint Venture (JV) in Buguma, Asare-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, we the Host Communities Producing Oil, Gas and Pipeline Impacted States Youth Council Of Nigeria, HOSTCON YOUTH COUNCIL OF NIGERIA, unequivocally blame the NNPCL/SPDC Joint Venture (JV), of negligence and as it may, vandals took advantage of it that led to their attempt not to blame vandals as cause of the outbreak of fire at the facility.
The fire incident affected the entire Buguma and its environs, a situation that could have been averted if the NNPCL/SPDC JV had carried out random checks on pipelines and oil infrastructures mostly situated in the salty swamp water where the facilities have been laid for decades, which has negative impact on the ecosystem.
Also in our emergency and crucial meeting on the unfortunate devastating fire incident, the President of Host Communities Producing Oil Gas and Pipeline Impacted States Youth Council Of Nigeria with the entire national leadership and that of the Board of Trustee, BoT, of the HOSTCON YOUTH COUNCIL OF NIGERIA totally and absolutely condemn the lackadaisical attitude and negligence by the SPDC/NNPCL JV who are the companies responsible of the said OML 008 Oil wellhead in the Buguma host community.
We express pain and deep lamentation over the devastating fire incident and commiserate with people of Buguma host community and environs who have been inundated by the fire.
And since the life threatening dangerous fire outbreak occurred in Buguma community, SPDC/NNPCL never paid attention neither did they quickly send in their emergency fire incident response team to be on ground to ascertain the level of the devastation caused by the fire so they can see for themselves the deadly effect of the hazard from the fire outbreak has caused the people of Buguma host community and its neighbouring host communities who cannot do their fishing business and continue with other means of livelihood to survive.
We are pained that SPDC/NNPCL JV deliberately ignored the people of Buguma community and the entire Kalabari Kingdom who are major oil and gas producing communities and Kingdom that contribute significant amount of crude oil and cubic of gas on daily basis to sustain the economy are all being neglected to their fate despite the enormity and gravity of the raging fire. We condemn this despicable attitude of SPDC and NNPCL towards our people in strong terms.
The truth is that it is the decay of these oil infrastructures without regular maintenance of pipelines led to these burst of flames
So, we must put the blame on the negligence and decay of the oil pipelines that are long overdue for maintenance which are operated by SPDC and NNPCL.
However in the communique, the host communities appealed that government should adopt recommendations been forward in order to salvage the Buguma host communities and its environs.
Ø HOSTCON YOUTH COUNCIL OF NIGERIA demand that SPDC/NNPCL to immediately construct housing structures and that of health care facilities for Buguma host community and its environs.
Ø We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources to set up a Panel of Inquiry of competent experts drawn from the presidency, law enforcement officers, Federal Ministry of Justice to ascertain the causes of this devastating and life threatening fire outbreak.
Ø Anybody found culpable should be punished adequately to serve as deterrent to other IOCs.
Ø A proper remediation of the waterways and the entire environment must be carried out the wellhead into the environment.
Ø We demand urgent maintenance and replacement of the decayed oil infrastructures.
Ø members of the host communities affected should be adequately compensated by NNPCL/SPDC JV.
Ø Provision of pipe-borne water should be provided for Buguma host community and others.
