A UNEP project leader caused an outcry this month when he said an estimated 90 percent of oil spills in the Niger Delta's Ogoniland region were the result of criminal activity rather than leakage from operations by a joint venture including oil giant Shell.

Mike Cowing, leading a UNEP project surveying the damage, suggested on August 10 that higher levels of Nigerian society must be involved, describing the illicit hoarding of oil as one of the root causes of the spills.

UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall told AFP that the survey, which is still ongoing, aimed only to map the location, nature, extent and implications of oil contamination in impoverished and volatile Ogoniland.

"The assessment is not about how the spills were caused, the assessment is about where there is contamination, the priorities for a clean-up and remediation for people in the Niger Delta," he said.

The survey, requested by the Nigerian government, would be finalised early next year, he said.

Cowing had told journalists in Geneva that the spillage from pipelines and installations in the southeastern region was potentially more harmful than some of the world's biggest disasters, like April's oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Thousands of kilometres (miles) of vegetation in the delta was smeared with oil, fish stocks were "virtually eliminated" and ground water was contaminated by pollution spanning back a decade, he said.

Cowing said that an estimated 90 percent of the oil being spilled in the Niger Delta, particularly in Ogoniland, "is as a result of criminal activity."

About 10 percent of the spills, in terms of volume and number, were attributed to equipment failure in the area, where oil is exploited by a joint company run by Nigeria and Anglo-Dutch giant Shell.

UNEP said this week the percentages were Nigerian government figures and did not reflect the results of its assessment.

Cowing had insisted that it was "not appropriate" to address an environmental clean-up and public health concerns "until such time as the root causes of the spills are addressed."

"Which is some tough medicine, it means the authorities in Nigeria have to get serious with the illegal activity that is ongoing and I would suggest is orchestrated through many different strata of society in Nigeria."

This isn't a local community problem, this problem goes to the higher levels," he added.

Local theft has been commonplace for years and Shell blamed one pipeline incident this month on suspected crude thieves with drills and hacksaws.

UNEP's investigators have found oil not only being sold in tins on local markets, but also crossing international borders on truck tankers.

"Perhaps most worryingly it's going on out on very large marine vessels which are being loaded up at sea and being escorted out to sea," said Cowing, calling it "a multibillion dollar industry."

Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM oil brokers, said Nigeria's current production capacity should be around 3.0 billion barrels per day..

"Last month Nigeria produced 2.28 million bpd," he said. "They're losing about 53 million dollars a day, which is a significant amount," although not all the loss was attributable to sabotage.

"There is evidence that the theft of oil is quite a big business," said Varga.

The survey is funded by the Shell-Nigeria venture under a "polluter pays" principle but will be peer reviewed in the autumn, Nuttal said

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