Shell confirms oil spill in Nigeria

Shell confirms oil spill in Nigeria

LAGOS: The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said on Friday that it had sent a clean-up team to contain an oil slick, which had been coursing from a sabotaged pipeline in southern Nigeria for more than two weeks.

The firm said its engineers had been prevented on June 1 from getting to the scene of the disaster in Imo State by a violent demonstration by local youths.

The spill in the 18-inch wide Assa-Rumuekpe trunkline was finally clamped on Wednesday, two weeks after the rupture, it said.

Although the Shell statement did not indicate the extent of human and ecological damage caused by the spill, the Vanguard newspaper reported on its front page Friday that trees and property worth 750 million naira (US$5.6 million) were destroyed as a result of the disaster. --AFP