The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) is an agency under the Federal Ministry of Environment in Nigeria. It was instituted by the National Assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria act of 2006 with the core mandate to oversee the implementation of the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan (NOSCP) which also incorporates the National Oil Spill Contingency System (NOSCS) for Nigeria. This is to ensure compliance to Nigeria’s signatory to the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (OPRC, 1990). Therefore, the agency has focused on building conformance with environment legislation in the Nigerian petroleum sector from inception. NOSDRA is the lead agency for other oil spill contingency plans in Nigeria, including the ports and industries. It fulfils its mandate through joint investigation visits, environmental remediation of impacted sites, monitoring oil spill drill exercises and facilitating inspections.
These activities are carried out across the country through their zonal offices located mostly in the Niger-Delta region including Port Harcourt, Warri, and Uyo where oil exploration and production are prevalent. They also have zonal offices in Lagos, Kaduna, Kogi, Gombe and Akure, with their headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria. However, the agency implements tier 3 oil spill response monitoring from its national control and response centre. They employ the oil spill monitor and gas flare tracker in reporting oil and gas pollution related matters. The frequency of oil spill incidents recorded by the agency prompted them to commence the development of a National Oil Spill Compensation Rate (NOSCR) in 2017 to guide the oil industry in establishing an acceptable and appropriate compensation to host and transit oil communities.
The agency prioritizes high-risk areas for protection and effective clean-up with the aid of a baseline environmental sensitivity index map (ESI) and covers the midstream and downstream in its environmental compliance monitoring role. Despite the scope of the NOSDRA, it is perceived not to be exhaustive and resulted in a demand for amendment in 2017. The amendment proposed to replace it with the National Oil Pollution Management Agency (NOPMA) and to expand its provisions to tackle not only oil spillage, but also oily waste, gas flare and obnoxious substances in the country’s petroleum sector. It also calls for provisions to regulate all tiers of oil spills, increased fines and penalties for polluters and improved funding. The amendment bill passed by the Nigerian National Assembly in 2019 was refused by the president, Muhammadu Buhari as a result of the observations in the proposed legislation.
Source: Wikipedia
Functions
According to the NOSDRA establishment Act, the Agency shall:
a. be responsible for surveillance and ensure compliance with all existing environmental legislation and the detection of oil spills in the petroleum sector;
b. Receive reports of oil spillages and co-ordinate oil spill response activities throughout Nigeria;
c. Co-ordinate the implementation of the Plan as may be formulated, from time to time, by the Federal Government;
d. Co-ordinate the implementation of the Plan for the removal of hazardous substances as may be issued by the Federal Government;
e. Perform such other functions as may be required to achieve the aims and objectives of the Agency under this Act or any plan as may be formulated by the Federal Government pursuant to this Act.
Penalties
1. An oil spiller is by this Act to report an oil spill to the Agency in writing not later than 24 hours after the occurrence of an oil spill, in default of which the failure to report shall attract a penalty in the sum of five hundred thousand naira (₦500,000.00) for each day of failure to report the occurrence.
2. The failure to clean up the impacted site, to all practical extent including remediation, shall attract a further fine of one million naira (₦1,000,000.00).
3. Such notice in writing is deemed to have been made, if delivered at the nearest zonal office closer to the impacted site, and of the Agency, the National Control and Response Centre within the stipulated time in subsection (2).
For more info visit www.nosdra.gov.ng
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