Shell Deploys Ships to Clean Oil Spill

RNW (AFP)

22 December 2011

Shell Deploys Ships to Clean Oil Spill

Shell is deploying ships and mobilising planes on Thursday to clean up an oil spill at a major field off Nigeria, the company says, with some 40,000 barrels estimated to have leaked into the sea.

The leak that began Tuesday has been stopped, according to Shell, and dispersants are being deployed to clean up the crude spilled at the field some 120 kilometres off Nigeria, Africa's largest oil producer and an OPEC member.

Production has halted at Shell's Bonga field, which has a capacity of 200,000 barrels per day, due to the spill.

Shell has said "less than 40,000 barrels" leaked, while Nigerian authorities could not immediately be reached for comment.

The company claimed on Thursday that "up to 50 percent of the leaked oil has already dissipated due to natural dispersion and evaporation," but that figure was impossible to verify independently.