For more than 20 fishing settlements along Nembe Creek in Bayelsa State, the smell arrived before the questions did. Residents say crude oil began spreading through the waterway on August 22. Three weeks on, with a cleanup still not fully underway, the community is counting its losses while regulators and the operator dispute exactly what happened.
What is known so far
The spill occurred when a barge loading crude oil from a manifold at a Nembe Creek facility reportedly ruptured, according to field reporting by Vanguard and allAfrica. The facility sits within Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29, operated by Nembe Exploration and Production Limited, formerly known as Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Limited. Communities including Mile 1, 2 and 3, Roka, Williamkiri, Atonbarakiri, Korukiri, Ewelesuo, Kpongbokiri, Victorkiri, the “Abuja” settlements and several Pipeline communities have all reported effects.
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A Joint Investigation Visit (JIV), drawing on information from the Bayelsa State Ministry of Environment and the Nembe Oil and Gas Committee, attributed the spill to operational failure. As of 1 September, however, the volume of crude released and the full extent of the pollution remained undisclosed.
Community voices from the water’s edge
The human cost has been documented through direct field reporting. Ebi Otokolo, Women Leader of the Nembe Creek communities, told allAfrica: “We experienced crude oil spillage that has spread in the environment, denying us our fishing activities. Even to cook at home we couldn’t. This is not the first time; it has been happening every time.” Love Mark, Vice-Chairlady of the women’s group, described rushing to retrieve her fishing nets as the crude spread — nets costing between N150,000 and N170,000 each, now ruined.
Joshua Robert Oruge, a resident of Robertkiri, raised a separate concern reported by allAfrica: lifebuoys placed on the river by the operator were restricting residents’ movement, compounding the disruption to daily life.
HRH Agent Anthony Waya, paramount ruler of the Nembe Creek communities, linked the spill to a longer pattern of ecological decline. “Due to the destruction of the aquatic life, there are no fish in the river; people would go fishing in two or three canoes and return with nothing,” he told EnviroNews. Waya said the community reported the spill to naval personnel after the operator allegedly failed to respond promptly. Women subsequently crossed over to protest at the facility, demanding relief materials within three days, since fishing — their primary livelihood — was no longer possible.
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Chief Alagoa Morris, Lead Field Monitor for the Environmental Conservation Agriculture and Rural Development (ECARD) and Technical Adviser on Environment to the Bayelsa State Governor, said the smell of crude was noticeable roughly two kilometres from the community during his organisation’s site visit. He warned that rising tides could carry pollution deeper into the mangroves, threatening the periwinkles, crabs and oysters that local households rely on.
A pattern, not an isolated incident
Dr Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director of the Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), formally demanded urgent cleanup, compensation and accountability on 8 September, following his organisation’s own field visit, which found crude oil in the water and along mangrove banks. “The latest incident comes against the background of previous pollution incidents associated with OML 29, including the prolonged 2021 Santa Barbara Well 1 spill wellhead blowout,” Bassey said, arguing that identifying an immediate cause should not mark the end of accountability efforts. Recurring spills, he stressed, should be treated as evidence of systemic environmental governance failure rather than a series of unconnected accidents.
HOMEF has called on Nembe Exploration and Production Limited, the Bayelsa State Government and federal regulatory agencies to publish the complete JIV findings — including cause, estimated volume, geographical extent and affected communities — commission an independent environmental assessment, and provide immediate relief and compensation to affected households.
A disputed account emerges
Not every detail of the incident is settled. ThisDay reported on September 9, citing sources with knowledge of the matter, that the vessel responsible was not a Nembe Exploration-owned crude-loading barge, as widely reported, but a contractor’s remediation barge engaged in separate work unrelated to the company’s crude production and evacuation operations. If accurate, this would complicate the “loading operation” framing used in most early reporting. It does not, however, appear to alter the fundamental facts: crude entered the creek, and the communities living along it have been affected regardless of which vessel was responsible.
What remains unresolved
Three weeks on, residents say they are still waiting for the clarity — and the relief — that was promised. As Vanguard’s field report put it, the people of Nembe Creek are waiting “not for promises, but for action.” Whether the coming weeks bring a published JIV report, a cleanup timeline and compensation, or another round of unresolved claims will determine whether this spill is remembered as a turning point in Niger Delta environmental accountability, or simply the next entry in a decades-long pattern.