Nigeria's president says Aiteo oil spill will be 'speedily addressed'

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari. Julien de Rosa/Reuters

Nigerian oil firm Aiteo Eastern E&P reported the spill on 5 November in the Nembe area of Bayelsa state in Nigeria's Delta, one of the most polluted places on Earth after decades of spills that have hurt farming and fishing.

Videos shared with Reuters last week showed oil gushing from the wellhead. On Wednesday, locals said the spill continued.

Buhari's minister of state for petroleum, Timipre Sylva, led a high-level delegation that visited the site on Wednesday.

Sylva, in the statement issued by Buhari's office, said relevant agencies had been deployed in the area to tackle the spill and that he was working to ensure that there were no problems between Aiteo and the community. In a statement on 20 November, Aiteo said it had contracted well control specialists Boots & Coots, a Halliburton subsidiary, to get the spill in check.

The company initially said the leak was "of an extremely high order" and that efforts to reach the site were aborted due to the high pressure of the leak.