When ExxonMobil decided to import a 30-year-old leaking oil platform to Nigeria from Angola, they can’t have been in any doubt about what was likely to happen.

Although foreign media are denied access to the Nigerian field involved – the government has imposed a 50-mile media blackout around the spill site – it is gradually becoming clear what’s happened.

The 30-year-old platform is leaking at least five thousand barrels of crude a day – and has been for some time. Neither Exxon nor the Nigerian Government can fix the leak (sounds familiar again doesn’t it? – and if the current pipes break further before they can fix the platform, it will release 60 to 100 thousand barrels of oil a day.

This has been going on since December 2009. ExxonMobil repeatedly deny that anything has happened, but there’s oil on the surface of the ocean, wildlife coated in crude, fishermen losing their businesses. In the last 10 days, ExxonMobil finally issued a statement to “BusinessDay and News Agency of Nigeria” saying two barrels of oil had spilled. Surely something of an understatement.

ExxonMobil owns the largest oil refinery in the U.S. Last week, the Associated Press reported that this Baytown refinery violated federal air pollution laws thousands of times during the last five years, releasing 10 million pounds of illegal pollution, including cancer-causing toxins. According to environmental groups, ExxonMobil got away without facing proper fines or being forced to fix equipment.

One of the reasons why BP’s stock has been rising is the heavy rumour that ExxonMobil may buy it.

S’a funny old world innit?