Reps demand urgent action over Bille gas seepage, Odidi oil spill

By Gift ChapiOdekina, Abuja

The House of Representatives Committee on South-South Development Commission has called for urgent action to address the prolonged gas seepage in Bille Community, Rivers State, and the oil spill affecting Odidi Federated Community in Delta State.

Chairman of the committee, Hon. Julius Pondi, made the call on Thursday during a stakeholders’ engagement on the Bille gas seepage and a legislative hearing on the Odidi oil spill in Abuja.

Pondi said the incidents had exposed residents of the two oil-producing communities to prolonged environmental and economic challenges, stressing that affected communities deserved concrete interventions rather than prolonged investigations.

He said the committee’s concern over the Bille incident intensified following its July 30, 2026 engagement with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), where it learnt that the gas seepage had persisted for about nine months.

“The implications are serious. Beyond the potential risks to health, safety and the environment, the incident has imposed severe economic hardship on the people of Bille,” Pondi said.

He noted that Bille, a predominantly fishing community, had experienced disruptions to livelihoods, food security, household incomes and education as a result of the incident.

“It is unacceptable for an incident of this magnitude to persist for so long without a clear, time-bound and effective resolution strategy,” he said.

Pondi said the stakeholders’ meeting was convened to establish the facts surrounding the seepage, assess interventions so far, identify obstacles and agree on practical and time-bound measures to address the situation.

He said the committee expected detailed briefings from operating companies, NUPRC, NOSDRA and other relevant agencies on the cause, extent and current status of the seepage.

The lawmaker added that representatives of Bille Community would also present their concerns and outline the relief and interventions required.

“Most importantly, we want to move from prolonged discussion to concrete action and lasting resolution,” he said.

On the Odidi oil spill, Pondi said the committee would conduct a legislative hearing to determine when the spill occurred and was reported, its cause, containment measures taken, extent of environmental damage, status of remediation and reasons for its continued persistence.

“Our approach will be fair, objective and evidence-based. We are not here to prejudge any party, but to establish the facts, promote accountability and facilitate solutions,” he said.

Pondi described the situations in Bille and Odidi as manifestations of the wider environmental and developmental challenges facing the South-South region.

He noted that despite the region’s significant contribution to Nigeria’s oil and gas economy, host communities continued to bear a disproportionate share of the environmental consequences of resource extraction.

“The wealth derived from the natural resources of the Niger Delta must not come at the unacceptable cost of the health, livelihoods and future of its people,” he said.

The lawmaker stressed that the House had a constitutional responsibility to exercise oversight, promote accountability and ensure that agencies responsible for environmental protection and resource management performed their duties effectively.

He warned that the proceedings should not end with expressions of concern and unfulfilled promises.

“We expect clear resolutions, firm commitments, defined responsibilities and measurable timelines,” Pondi said.

He urged oil and gas companies, regulatory agencies, ministries, government institutions and community representatives to participate in the process with openness and a commitment to finding lasting solutions.

NOSDRA confirms multiple gases in Bille

At the engagement, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) confirmed the presence of hydrogen sulphide, methane, volatile organic compounds and carbon dioxide in Bille Community, Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.

A director of NOSDRA, Dr Yusuf Rigasa, said investigations had established what he described as “multi-point subsurface gas bubbling” at several locations, including the premises of Government Primary and Secondary School.

He said the school had subsequently been abandoned, while gas bubbling was also detected around waterways and mangrove areas.

Rigasa said an air-quality assessment conducted by NOSDRA on December 6, 2025, across 19 stations recorded elevated concentrations of the gases.

He explained that hydrogen sulphide has a characteristic rotten-egg smell, while methane is highly flammable and potentially explosive.

According to him, the concentrations recorded exceeded applicable regulatory thresholds.

He added that samples collected on December 16, 2025, and analysed by NOSDRA’s reference laboratory also showed elevated levels of total petroleum hydrocarbons in groundwater, surface water and sediment.

Rigasa said the findings indicated that portions of the soil, surface water and groundwater in Bille had been affected by pollution.

He said NOSDRA’s technical presentation to the Minister of Petroleum Resources suggested that the source of the gas seepage was probably biogenic, resulting from the degradation of organic matter.

He stressed, however, that the agency had not established that the gas originated from a hydrocarbon source.

Rigasa said NOSDRA had so far been unable to identify an oil and gas operator as the source of the seepage, adding that the agency had worked with Renaissance, Eroton, New Cross and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company during preliminary investigations.

He said NUPRC had reported that it had no record of pipelines in the immediate area where the seepage was occurring.

“That also tells us our findings, because we searched for oil and gas assets at the locations. There were none. That is why we are not able to actually pin a certain operator to what is actually happening,” he said.

Rigasa said NOSDRA’s findings were corroborated by NUPRC, while a reservoir survey was ongoing to determine whether the seepage could be linked to an underground hydrocarbon reservoir.

“What we can confirm for the House is that the air, the groundwater, the surface water and the sediment in the swampy areas in that village, they are all polluted,” he said.

Bille chiefs raise alarm over health, livelihoods

The Bille Kingdom Chiefs Council also raised concerns over the continuing seepage, saying it had affected water sources, disrupted fishing activities and forced the relocation of pupils from a primary school.

Secretary-General of the council, Chief Luckyman Egbila, Opu Gbolo III of Ancient Bille Kingdom, said the incident began on November 6, 2025, in the community’s mangrove area where women had gone to harvest periwinkles.

Egbila said the community promptly alerted regulatory authorities, leading to an initial visit by NOSDRA and subsequent assessments.

He said the community later travelled to Abuja to submit letters to relevant agencies after failing to receive adequate responses from regulators.

According to him, further engagements were held with operators in the area, including air-quality, soil and water tests, but the community was not given the results.

Egbila said residents continued to petition federal agencies for intervention, adding that NUPRC later took the lead in further investigations.

He said the community was yet to receive a clear explanation of the cause of the seepage or a permanent solution.

“Up till now, we are yet to see anything. Just as it happened the first time, they have gone back to sleep,” he said.

He said gas bubbling was still occurring in several mangrove areas, making fishing increasingly difficult.

“Our people cannot go to fishing. Most of the mangroves are bubbling. Particularly, we don’t have water to drink. We don’t have water to eat with,” Egbila said.

He alleged that some dugout wells had also become contaminated and that residents were experiencing deteriorating air quality.

Egbila said the Rivers State Government had provided N100 million for palliative measures, part of which was used to provide food and conduct a medical outreach, but described the intervention as insufficient given the duration of the crisis.

He called for the immediate provision of potable water and a permanent solution to the seepage.

“Water is life. We can’t exist without potable drinking water,” he said.

Egbila also raised concerns about the impact of the incident on education, saying pupils had been relocated from the primary school because of concerns over exposure to the emissions.

He appealed for the upgrading of the community’s primary health centre and the deployment of resident doctors, saying residents often had to travel to Port Harcourt for medical treatment.

The Bille representative further expressed concern about the quality of water from boreholes, alleging that some water turned black shortly after being pumped.

He appealed to the Federal Government, regulatory agencies and oil and gas operators to provide safe drinking water, address the health and livelihood consequences of the incident and urgently find a permanent solution to the gas seepage.

Pondi assured residents of Bille and Odidi that the House would continue to exercise its oversight functions and work with relevant institutions to ensure appropriate action.

He said the ultimate objective was to ensure that natural resources in the South-South region were developed responsibly, host communities were protected and environmental incidents received prompt responses.

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