Explore the cause classifications recorded in Nigeria's public oil-spill records. SpillFlare summarizes source-record values using the current NOSDRA snapshot; it does not independently determine fault or legal responsibility.
Snapshot retrieved 6 Sept 2026. The analysis covers 20,444 indexable source records with trusted incident dates. One row is a source incident record, not necessarily an independently verified unique physical spill event.
Percentages in the middle column use records with a populated cause field as the denominator. The final column uses all considered records.
Counts are source-record classifications, not independent findings of fault.
| Displayed category | Records | Share with cause | Share of all |
|---|
| Sabotage / theft | 13,965 | 73.9% | 68.3% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment failure | 2,095 | 11.1% | 10.2% |
| Corrosion | 1,248 | 6.6% | 6.1% |
| Operational/maintenance error | 485 | 2.6% | 2.4% |
| Yet to determine | 388 | 2.1% | 1.9% |
| Other source label | 708 | 3.7% | 3.5% |
| Cause not supplied | 1,555 | — | 7.6% |
“Cause not supplied” is kept visible and has no share-with-cause percentage because it is outside that denominator. “Yet to determine” is an explicit source value, not the same as a blank field.
512 trusted incident-date source records are in this year's view; 511 have a populated cause value.
| Displayed category | Records | Share with cause |
|---|---|---|
| Sabotage / theft | 368 | 72.0% |
| Equipment failure | 54 | 10.6% |
| Corrosion | 40 | 7.8% |
| Operational/maintenance error | 33 | 6.5% |
| Yet to determine | 2 | 0.4% |
| Other source label | 14 | 2.7% |
| Cause not supplied | 1 | — |
These are changes in source-record classifications. They are not automatically changes in real-world spill frequency or liability.
Years use trusted incident dates; the latest year may be incomplete.
| Year | Total | Sabotage / theft | Equipment | Corrosion | Operational / maintenance | Yet to determine | Other | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026Current snapshot | 180 | 96 | 39 | 23 | 16 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| 2025 | 512 | 368 | 54 | 40 | 33 | 2 | 14 | 1 |
| 2024 | 1,258 | 1,068 | 88 | 47 | 25 | 8 | 20 | 2 |
| 2023 | 1,550 | 1,403 | 59 | 48 | 16 | 9 | 9 | 6 |
| 2022 | 1,159 | 1,002 | 47 | 57 | 17 | 8 | 22 | 6 |
| 2021 | 691 | 537 | 54 | 55 | 13 | 5 | 18 | 9 |
| 2020 | 618 | 437 | 53 | 72 | 18 | 13 | 17 | 8 |
| 2019 | 937 | 733 | 58 | 58 | 27 | 13 | 26 | 22 |
| 2018 |
Current-year note: 2026 values reflect the available source snapshot only and are not a completed calendar-year total.
Counts use only explicit, resolvable source state fields. Location prose is not used to infer state membership.
The mapping is explicit and conservative; raw source labels remain available for audit.
| Raw source label | Displayed category | Records |
|---|---|---|
sab | Sabotage / theft | 13,965 |
eqf | Equipment failure | 2,095 |
cor | Corrosion | 1,248 |
other: | Other source label | 616 |
ome | Operational/maintenance error | 485 |
ytd | Yet to determine | 388 |
other: mys | Other source label | 81 |
other:Oily Water carry over from blocked closed drain header into open drain system | Other source label | 3 |
other: BLAST | Other source label | 1 |
other: Spill incident occured during the repair of crude oil theft point on the pipeline. | Other source label | 1 |
other: STRUCURAL FAILURE | Other source label | 1 |
other:explosion | Other source label | 1 |
other:Explosion | Other source label | 1 |
other:HACKSAW CUT | Other source label | 1 |
other:oily water carry over from blocked closed drain header into open drain system | Other source label | 1 |
other:Residual oil from past repair | Other source label | 1 |
Blank cause fields are counted separately as “Cause not supplied” and are not present in this populated-label table. No subjective merger of free-text “other:” values is applied.
Open stable record pages to inspect the fields behind the selected-year summary.
SpillFlare groups the cause values supplied in the current public source snapshot, including sabotage/theft, equipment failure, corrosion, operational/maintenance error, yet-to-determine entries and other source labels. The ranking describes source-record classifications, not independent findings of fault.
Counts use indexable source records with a trusted incident date. The cause field is classified only when its source code or label matches the explicit mapping shown on this page; blank values remain missing.
No. Cause values come from the underlying public records. SpillFlare summarizes those classifications and does not independently determine technical cause, fault or legal responsibility.
Some source records have no cause value, while others explicitly use the source's yet-to-determine code. Those cases are shown separately so the reported-cause distribution does not hide source incompleteness.
It can. One row is a source incident record and incident numbers are not guaranteed unique event identifiers. The page therefore reports record classifications rather than unique physical spill events.
SpillFlare organizes public oil-spill records from the NOSDRA Oil Spill Monitor and links aggregate findings back to stable record pages where the supplied source fields can be inspected.
| 850 |
| 626 |
| 95 |
| 56 |
| 14 |
| 14 |
| 20 |
| 25 |
| 2017 | 711 | 541 | 75 | 33 | 17 | 9 | 18 | 18 |
|---|
| 2016 | 799 | 591 | 68 | 44 | 17 | 11 | 35 | 33 |
|---|
| 2015 | 1,084 | 801 | 129 | 45 | 13 | 10 | 24 | 62 |
|---|
| 2014 | 1,711 | 1,308 | 139 | 85 | 18 | 50 | 33 | 78 |
|---|
| 2013 | 1,774 | 1,225 | 113 | 93 | 19 | 104 | 47 | 173 |
|---|
| 2012 | 1,175 | 799 | 116 | 76 | 25 | 49 | 43 | 67 |
|---|
