As it passed over the Niger Delta in 2021, a satellite took an image. He showed acres of land, scraped bare. The site, outside the city of Port Harcourt, was on a clean-up list maintained by the United Nations Environment Programme, which was supposed to be restored to green agricultural land as the Delta was previously thousands of oil spills turned it into a polluted word. Instead the landwas left as a sandy “moonshine” that could not be used for farming, according to UN documents.
That purge was no exception, records obtained by The Associated Press show. Previously unreported investigations, emails, letters to Nigerian ministers and minutes of meetings clearly show that senior UN officials were increasingly concerned that the Nigerian agency in charge of the spill crude oil has been a “total failure.”
The group, called Hyprep, chose cleaning contractors who did not have adequate experience, according to a UN investigation. He sent soil samples to labs that didn't have the equipment to do the tests they said they could. Inspectors were physically prevented from ensuring work was completed.
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A former Nigerian environment minister told the AP that most cleaning companies are owned by politicians, and minutes show similar views were shared by UN officials.
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
Thousands of oil spills in the Niger Delta in Nigeria
There have been thousands of crude oil spills in the tidal mangroves and farmlands of the Niger Delta since drilling and oil production began in the 1950s. Reports and studies document what is widely known here: People often wash, drink, fish and cook in contaminated water.
Spills still occur frequently. The community of Ogboinbiri in Bayelsa state suffered its fourth downpour in three months in November, damaging farm fields, streams and the fish that people depend on.
“We bought the land in 2023; we did not harvest anything from the land; both profit, our interest, everything is gone,” said Timipre Bridget, a farmer in the community. “There is no way to live with our children again.”
Many of the spills are caused by breakers illegally tapping pipelines to siphon off crude oil that they process into gasoline in mobile refineries.
After a major UN investigation into the spill more than a decade ago, oil companies agreed to create a $1 billion clean-up fund for the worst-affected area, and Ogoniland, and Shell, the oil and largest private gas in the country, $300 million to it. the Nigerian government handled the money and the UN was relegated to an advisory role.
To oversee the work, the government created the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project, or Hyprep. He first tackled sites that were supposed to be easy to clean up, like the one outside Port Harcourt. Then he would move on to complex ones, where oil had sunk deeper into the earth.
But a secret investigation by UN scientists last year found the site outside Port Harcourt was left with “absolutely no topsoil” and almost seven times more oil in the subsoil than the borders Nigerian health.
The company that did that work has since withdrawn its contract, said Nenibarini Zabbey, the current director of Hyprep, who took over last year, to the AP.
The head of operations when the contract was awarded, Philip Shekwolo, called the allegations in the UN documents “baseless, absurd and blackmail”.
Shekwolo, who used to head oil spill remediation for Shell, said by email that he knows more about dealing with pollution than any UN expert and insists the cleanup has been successful.
But the documents show UN officials raising the alarm about Hyprep with Nigerian officials from 2021, when Shekwolo was acting chief.
Systemic issues with contractors
A January 2022 UN study found that of 41 contractors licensed to clean up spill sites, 21 lacked adequate experience. None were deemed competent enough to handle contaminated sites.
These include Nigerian construction companies and general buyers. The websites of two construction companies, for example, Jukok International and Ministaco Nigeria, make no mention of pollution cleanup.
In the minutes of a meeting with UN officials and Shell, Hyprep's own head of communications, Joseph Kpobari, has said that poor cleaning is happening because his organization hires incompetent companies. The UN delegation warned that despite their inadequate work, these companies were being rewarded with contracts for tougher sites.
Zabbey denied in an email that this confession was withheld. The cleanup of the sites was not a simple failure, he said, as 16 out of 20 had now been certified clean by Nigerian regulators and many returned to communities. Hyprep always followed guidelines when issuing contracts, Zabbey said, and its inspectors were trained by the UN.
Inquisitive laboratory tests
Two sources close to the cleanup efforts in the Delta, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of losing business or jobs, said test results held up by Hyprep as proof of cleanup could not be true because when officials visited the laboratories, they found that they did not have the equipment to carry out these tests.
In a letter to its customers, one UK laboratory that frequently used Hyprep admitted that its tests for most of 2022 were flawed and unreliable. The UK's laboratory accreditation service confirmed that the laboratory's license to carry out the tests had been suspended twice.
Zabbey defended the cleanup agency in a statement to the AP, saying they are monitoring contractors more closely now. Laboratories adhere to Nigerian and UN recommendations and are frequently inspected, he said, and the UN could have trained local laboratory staff if it chose.
The UN cited another problem – contractors were allowed to assess pollution levels at their sites. No government agency was setting a baseline for what needed to be cleaned up at oil spilled sites. This meant that companies were monitoring their own progress, effectively providing a “blank cheque,” UN Project Senior Adviser Iyenemi Kakulu is recorded as saying in minutes meeting last June between the UN, Hyprep and Shell.
No audit of Nigerian clearing agency accounts
The UN warned the Nigerian government in an assessment in 2021 that spending at the cleaning agency was not being monitored. Internal auditors were viewed as “the enemy” and “demonized for doing their job.” Shekwolo's predecessor as Hyprep boss banned new financial controls and “physically prevented” inspectors from checking whether work was done properly before paying contractors, according to the UN assessment.
Zabbey said this, too, has changed since that evaluation: The audit team is now valued, he said, and accounts are now audited annually, though he provided only one cover letter. study. In it, the accounting firm asked what steps had been taken to “correct the weaknesses identified.”
Shekwolo referred the AP to the Nigerian president's office, which did not respond to a request to show how the money is being spent. The office of Environment Minister Iziaq Salako declined an interview.
The environment minister tries to take action
Sharon Ikeazor was born in Nigeria, educated in Britain, and spent decades as a lawyer before entering politics. In 2019, she was appointed as Nigeria's environment minister. She was well aware of Hyprep's alleged failures and wanted to address them.
“There was no proper treatment being done,” she told the AP in a phone interview. “The companies had no capacity.”
In February 2022, she received a letter from UN chief Muralee Thummarukudy, with what experts say is unusually strong language in diplomacy. He warned of “significant opportunities for malpractice within the contract award process,” in oil refining operations in Nigeria. Ikeazor removed Shekwolo as acting head of Hyprep the following month, explaining that she believed he was too close to the politicians.
“Most” cleaning companies were owned by politicians, she said. The few competent companies would not get “the big jobs.”
One of Shekwolo's duties, Ikeazor said, was to see who was capable of contract awards. Ikeazor said Shekwolo's former employer Shell and the UN warned her about it, something Shekwolo says he was unaware of.
When she appointed the new head of Hyprep, she made him review all the suspect contracts awarded over the years and investigate the cleaning companies.
“That sent shock waves around the political class,” Ikeazor said. “They all had interests.”
“That's when the battle began,” she said.
It was a short battle, and she lost. She was replaced as environment minister and Shekwolo was reinstated. He was gone for two months.
Shekwolo says the only politicians he was close to were the two environment ministers he served in. He was never given a reason to remove it, he said, and suggested that Ikeazor didn't like it.
The UN breaks ties
Last year, the UN Environment Program severed ties with the Nigerian oil spill group, explaining that their five-year consultation was over. The last support ended in June.
Ikeazor said the real reason the UN pulled out was frustration over corruption. Both sources close to the project agreed that the UN left because it could not continue with the Nigerian clearing agency.
Zabbey replied that he believes that the UN only changed its goals and moved on.
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Associated Press reporter Taiwo Adebayo sent from Abuja, Nigeria.
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The Associated Press's climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP standards for working with philanthropy, list of sponsors and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
