Well, I think crude thefts have been on the increase, and it is really very dangerous for the industry.
It is terrible you know for the environmentÖ
A lot of our spills are occurring because of violence and vandalism;
a lot are occurring because of crude oil theft.
More than 70% of all oil spilled from the facilities
of the Shell Petroleum Development Company in the Niger Delta
over the last five years was from sabotage or leaks
caused when thieves damaged pipelines and wellheads.
In 2009, these two causes alone accounted for 98% of SPDC spills.
In August 2010, CNN reported the terrible environmental
impact of oil theft and illegal oil refineries.
Here, CNN showed young men risking their lives
refining diesel from stolen crude.
Fires heat the crude oil in these barrelsÖThe diesel evaporates
and passes through pipes, cooled by water,
and then comes out into these barrels.
Itís very dangerous work with naked flames just meters away.
This young man told CNN he had lost count of the number
of people who have died in explosions.
This man is risking his life paddling a canoe filled
to the brim with potentially explosive diesel.
Illegal oil refineries like these dot the Niger Delta.
The pollution they cause is clear to see. In June,
the United Nations Environment Programme,
whoíve been conducting an assessment of one part of the Delta ñ Ogoniland -
warned that these illegal refineries are having a serious impact
on health, security and livelihoodsÖ particularly fishing.
So why does this lethal activity continue? These men do it to survive.
But they donít earn much. Poverty in the Niger Delta is widespread.
The real winners are the organised criminal gangs who orchestrate
a massive illegal business stealing and selling oil in huge quantities.
Itís theft on an industrial scale ñ according to some estimates,
hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day.
Itís fair to say that this is being done by highly organised criminal gangs,
not just an individual because you require money to hire barges,
to hire trains, to get tankers and to buy the influence you need to move this thing around.
This is not what we want in Nigeria.
SPDC works hard to clean up all spills no matter what
their causeÖand return the land to its original state.
Thereís got a lot of education there ñ
massive education for people to appreciate what this is doing to the environment
and what this is doing to the economy. But on our part, we also have a role
to play to making sure we can minimise the operational spills that occur in our day-to-day operations.
The volume of spills that have happened due to operational error has gone down significantly.
We will continue to make sure that operational spills are reduced to the barest minimum.
I feel very sad, not just because of the economic sabotage but because of the environment,
because of the fact that some unscrupulous person decide to get rich destroying our environment,
which we should be leaving for our future children.