The Environmental Defenders Network (EDEN) has urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to compel Oando to immediately mobilise to stop an ongoing gas leak from its facility in the Orashi River in Rivers State.
After more than a year of frustrating efforts to get environmental justice, the locals reported the incident to EDEN on January 3, 2026, necessitating a field visit on January 31 for documentation of the impacts.
However, the leak is yet to be clamped and the pollution has gravely affected the Engenni people and other downstream communities.
EDEN field monitors learnt from local community people that they reported the incident to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company when the firm was in charge of the facility and nothing was done. After Oando took over operations it also refused to take any action.
They lamented that the Orashi River is their only source of drinking water and the environment where they fish, even as they cautioned of likely explosions and other hazards that may occur if the gas leak continued.
EDEN Executive Director, Barrister Chima Williams, said: “We are shocked that this impunity and obvious negligence by Oando have been allowed to continue for more than a year. Oando is deliberately provoking the people, and the Nigerian authorities have continued to look away. It is unacceptable.”
Barrister Williams insisted that the NNPC should, as a matter of responsibility and urgency, prevail on Oando to take the needed immediate steps to protect the health and livelihood of the locals by acting promptly and must equally take responsibility for the damages the incident has caused.
He said that AGIP did not have a positive rating with environmental management when it operated the facilities in the community and noted that Oando would seem to have toed the same line of approach.
It will be recalled that EDEN field monitors have documented the situation concerning pipelines originally owned and managed by Agip before Oando became the new owners of the facilities for more than a decade. The web of pipelines right from the company’s Taylor Creek Wells at Ikarama carry different products such as gas, condensate and crude oil. In October 2019, there was an underwater gas leakage on the Taylor Creek; at Kalaba community in Bayelsa State.
Williams said that the impunity must not be allowed to continue and urged the Ahoada West Local Government, Rivers State Ministry of Environment and Federal Ministry of Environment to compel Oando to address the leak and also provide potable water for the people of Oshie and Akinima communities as soon as possible.