Written by Melanie Kozlan, Four Green Steps

Government officials are saying that a recent oil spill off the coast of Nigeria is likely to be the worst oil spill to affect those waters in a decade. So far affecting up to 115 miles of ocean off of Nigeria's coast, Shell  has estimated that the spill was likely made up of less  than 40 000 barrels of oil.

From the Huffington Post:

Shell, the major oil producer in Nigeria, said Wednesday the spill likely occurred as workers tried to offload oil onto a waiting tanker. The company published photographs of the spill, showing a telltale rainbow sheen in the ocean, but said it believes that about 50 percent of the leaked oil has already evaporated.

The source of the leak has been plugged, Idabor said, but the spill still threatens the shoreline and wildlife. Idabor said experts from Britain were coming to help with the cleanup.

Shell announced Wednesday that the Bonga spill likely was less than 40,000 barrels, or 1.68 million gallons. That's about the same amount of oil spilled offshore in 1998 at a Mobil field. The 1998 spill saw oil slicks extended for more than 100 miles (some 160 kilometers) to Lagos, the country's commercial capital.

"Since the Mobil spill, this is just about the most major one," Idabor said.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.

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