Polluter pays all costs for oil spill cleanup in Ghana

Oct 25, 2017 ExxonMobil, News

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– Natural Resource Leader

By Kiana Wilburg

Who foots the bill when an oil spill occurs? Is it the operator or the host country? This was one of the burning questions that Theophilus Nyarko Ahwireng, a Ghanaian leader in natural resource governance, was faced with on Monday night from concerned Guyanese.
Ahwireng was the featured speaker at the seventh public lecture of the Guyana Oil and Gas Association (GOGA). It was held at the Pegasus Hotel.
There, the geophysicist noted that in Ghana, the issue of oil spills is managed by their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He said that depending on the extent of the spill, there could be regional intervention or it could trigger the need for other support groups.
Ahwireng noted, however, that it is the operator who bears the ultimate responsibility for absorbing all costs associated with the messy cleanup. It is the polluter who pays. This is also made very clear in Ghana’s laws, he said.
The geophysicist said, “The regulatory authority is the EPA but under our new Petroleum Law we have the principle of ‘Polluter Pays’ so the ultimate responsibility of whatever happens is that of the operator…
“There are clear protocols that have been tested with time, to see how you respond when there is such a problem.”
According to Ghana’s Petroleum Exploration and Production Law, a licensee, contractor or the Corporation carrying out petroleum activities is strictly liable for any pollution damage caused by or resulting from the petroleum activities.
The Ghanaian law also states that any other person who took part in the petroleum activity and who knew or should have known that the activity was conducted without proper authorization are strictly liable for the damage.
The law even makes clear, how the Government as well as Ghana’s Petroleum Commission, is expected to consider the compensation to be made by the operator at fault.

These strict measures by Ghana were passed by its Parliament in 2016. But its Polluter Pays Principle (PPP0 was in play since 2011.

GUYANA ILL-PREPARED
When placed alongside Ghana, Guyana appears even more ill-prepared for the possibility of an oil spill. Since the announcement of significant oil finds by USA oil giant, ExxonMobil in 2015, there have been no provisions for an oil spill even in policy form.
In fact, when ExxonMobil submitted its Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to Guyana’s EPA, it gave the impression that the possibility of an oil spill was so low, that there was no need for it to submit a detailed response plan.
To date, Guyanese do not know how the company would respond to an oil spill that could affect 90 percent of the population residing on the coastlands. More significantly, not a single trace of commitment to foot the cost of an oil spill can be found in ExxonMobil’s EIA.

EXXONMOBIL’S OIL SPILLS
Over the years, ExxonMobil has been criticized for causing some of the world’s most detrimental oil spills, leaving marine life as well as communities devastated for decades.
One of the worst in its track record is the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill which occurred in Alaska on March 24, 1989. More than 20 years later, many question whether ExxonMobil actually learned anything from the great Valdez mistake.
On May 1, 2010, a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, spilled more than a million gallons of oil into the delta. The leak contaminated waters and coastal settlements in the predominantly fishing communities along Akwa Ibom.
Importantly, Nigeria’s authorities flagged ExxonMobil for its response to the oil spill. The company used certain chemicals which were proven to be toxic to human and marine life.
Samuel Ayadi, Akwa Ibom State Chapter Chairman of Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria (ARFAN), said that ExxonMobil was in the habit of using dangerous chemical dispersants which are scientifically proven to be toxic to human and aquatic life to clean up oil spills whenever they occur.
He also noted that dispersants were even more dangerous than crude oil because it breaks down the crude oil and sinks it to the sea bed where it kills fish eggs and fingerlings thereby wiping out generations of fish stock and other sea food and marine creatures that make up the food chain.
Even as early as February this year, ExxonMobil found itself under investigation after Australian regulators found that there was an oily sheen around ExxonMobil’s rig in the Bass Strait of Australia.
The findings of the investigation revealed that it was indeed an oil spill caused by ExxonMobil and worse yet; its failure to properly respond increased the risk of contamination and posed a “significant threat to the environment.”

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