Washington, DC — A spokesperson from the Houston-based Boots & Coots International Well Control likened Sunday's occurrence in Ogoniland, Nigeria to "typical procedure".
Shortly before 4pm, Ogoni villagers blocked the Boots & Coots convoy, who had recently been in the area to cap an eight-day oil leak, from returning to the coastal city of Port Harcourt. The road-block, which lasted no more than three hours, ended without incident and bore little significance, according to the spokesperson.
"It was nothing personal against Boots & Coots. Our job was only to clean up a leaking wellhead, not get involved in the situation between Shell [Nigeria] and the Ogonis. When we go into a place like rural Nigeria, these things are known to happen," she said.
But for Shell in Nigeria (the Shell Petroleum Development Company - SPDC) who abandoned its oil drilling operations in Ogoniland in 1993 leaving behind up to 14 wells, now increasingly vulnerable after so many years of neglect, the situation is not so easily dismissed. The oil leak may have been capped, but in this part of the country, damage control means more than that.
When Shell was forced by the embittered Ogoni community to quit its 30,000 barrel-per-day oil operations, the withdrawal was hasty and proper abandonment procedures were never followed. Since then, Shell has been reluctant to return to what one Shell spokesperson termed, "a threatening environment."
"Shell has been aware of the deteriorating conditions of the abandoned wellheads. It has been our intention to return to the area, but in doing so, we feel that we are exposing our workers to threats and personal attacks," said Cerris Tavinor in Shell's London office.
Reactions to the blown out oil wellhead, which began on Sunday, April 29, were inevitably characterised by suspicion. Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSPOP) president Ledum Mitee said Shell was issuing statements that were confusing and misleading.
"In the past two days Shell has alternated between blaming the local people for this disaster, by accusing them of vandalisation and, in a contradictory position, declaring that all the abandoned oil wells in Ogoni are a 'time bomb' due to lack of maintenance," said his statement.
Human rights lawyer Oronto Douglas also dismissed Shell's statements. "In Nigeria, when a pipeline explodes or an oil well leaks, the oil companies are quick to point accusing fingers in the direction of vandals. The numerous cases of pipeline explosions in the United States, for example, are not so described. The truth of the matter is that Shell pipelines are old and rusty."
But a UK-based Mosop official suggested that the immediate cause of the blow-out was less important than the history of tension between Ogonis and Shell.
"The point here is that if it were sabotage it certainly is very unlikely to be anyone who has an interest in the local communities or is from the immediate area. There have been blowouts before in 1994 and 1999 and the local people know they are nasty, dangerous and that clean-ups and assistance don't happen after the blow-outs are stopped," he said.
The most recent Mosop statement attributed Sunday's blocking of the Boots & Coots convoy to feelings of desperation in the Niger Delta.
"Given the responsible and often self-sacrificing assistance that the local people have provided in preventing this blowout becoming a fire, often putting themselves at risk, we must initially conclude that the only reason for a blockade...would be from desperation. Local villagers have seen a foreign team come in and cap the well while no serious action has been taken over the surrounding devastation. History has taught them that this may be the last they see of outside assistance," stated Mitee.
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Shell spokesperson James Herbert today confirmed Shell's intentions to follow through with clean-up procedures, and assist with further investigations.
Douglas, who currently pursues human rights cases against Shell in the USA, acknowledged the oil company's predicament, saying, "Shell desperately wants to go into Ogoniland - not necessarily for the oil since its eyes are offshore where its strategists believe there is less likelihood of communal agitation and where also the deposits are in their billions - but as a means of burying the 'ghost of Ogoni'."
