Niger Delta Flashcards
Causes of degredation
— Shell Petroleum Development company (SPDC) started operations in Ogoni land in Rivers State in 1958, drilling 96 wells to bring 9 oil fields onstream.
— By 1992 Ogoni production was 28,000 barrels a day
— The curse of Black Gold - 1976 Pérez Alfonzogave a warning “oil will bring us ruin 20 years from now… its the devils excrement”
— Disaster of Nigerian Delta destroyed by drilling by Shell, Texaco, Total
— Nigeria needs $530bn for cleanup of niger delta - could take up to 30 years
Problems faced by the area
Enivronmental:
— 2.4m barrels spilled in 4800 incidents. E.g. Texaco offshore leak of 400,000 barrels of crude 1980
— Gas flares causing acid rain + fogs + constant fall of carcinognic chemicals. Acid rain responsible for eroding zinc roofing Ogoniland - replacing with asbestos –> lung cancer
— 8cm oil layer found around groundwater - linked to oil spills over 8yrs ago
— Shell left in 1993 - but maintanence of oilfield infrastructure are still leaking
— mangrove vegetation affected - stems coated in bitumen over 1cm thick -
— previous oil spills leaving thick layer of ash + tar - preventing plat growth
Political:
— Amnesty international call for criminal invest. for Shell in Ogoniland
— Shell accused of colluding with nigerion govt + military: Shell pressure military to intervene with protesters so that production can begin again
— Ken Saro-Wiwa, president of the movement for the survival of ogoni people was assasinated - perhaps supported by shell
— 30,000 people made homeless after villages were burnt and destroyed
Social:
— Since 2000 armed militants and groups have developed bunkering oil pipelines + running illegal refinieries - 6000km of high pressure pipelines are open to sabotage
— Loss of mangroves –> little nutrient cycling - use of fuelwood is no longer available e.g. Bodo
— Bodo - soil is black, petroleum permiates every aspect of life
— Fish stocks destroyed due to bacteria feeding on the hydrocarbons, reducing the amount of dissolved O2 - loss of livelyhood for thousands of fishermen
— Ogoniland people must deal with high rates of illness, low fertility due to exposure to benzene - associated with leukemia. 4500 more times contaminated than reccomended levels
— Children twice as likely to die within the 1st month in Nigeria if they live near/ round the oil spills
Economic:
— Nigeria claimed independence in 1950 from Britain. Agreed oil revenues would be split 50:50 BUT it was more 10:90
— Despite resource wealth of over $30bn, people of Ogoni are still poor
Attempts to improve the area
Shells initial responses:
Provide clean drinking water
Train contractors on remediation techniques
Theft, Spills, Sabotage prevention:
- – Support unarmed community patrols
- – Shell community programmes to meat 184 communities
Youth, Community programmes:
— Shell LiveWIRE youth programme - where they educate about alternative livelyhoods - equips young people with the skills to run their own business. 70% are now successful businesses and employ labour
£55m payout from shell to Bodo community
— Each resident to receive £2000 + Borehols made for water + 10,000 catfish
Shell clean up Bodo 2017 - if uninterupted it should take 3 years
Spill response clean up
- – Research and adopt new techniques for cleaning up
- – 2017 biodiversity strategy
- – Shell was first company in Nigeria to open up all information on the spills
Issues of these attempts
Theft, sabotage and spills
— work is difficult to accomplish due to consistent criminality
Spills from 3rd party interference
- – These cause the worst enivronmental damage as they are hard to access
- – Continued ground and air surveilance have removed 950 theft points
Judgement on the success of the attempts
Spills still occur decimating the Delta region
- – Theft resulted in a loss of 9000 barrels of oil a day in 2017
- – total vol of oil spilt in 2017 was 100 tonnes, a reduction of 70% on the 2016 figure
Shell clean up Bodo, slow but some progress
— In 2017, 92 sites were remediated and certified / 243
Oil companies not responded to justice for the murders in 1990s
— According to UNEP Nigerians have paid a high price of 1000sq km being systematically contaminated
— UNEP recommends a clean up of $1bn cost and says it could take 25-30 yrs
— Clearup in past has been ineffective: still highly contaminated 30 yrs on in Ejama Ebubu - 8cm of oil on groundwater foating in wells that served the community
– Socio-economy destroyed by loss of farmland, fish and two main economies in bodo, whilst $30bn of oil was exported by Shell before its closure in 1993
