Shell Petroleum Discovery Of Nigeria Essay

Situated along the coast of the Gulf of Guinea is a region about the size of South Carolina that offers a land full of sweet, light crude oil, known as the Niger Delta (Delta). The Delta sits within the country of Nigeria in West Africa and is in a constant state of crisis, underpinned by a multitude of key issues. Those issues include severe poverty, soil and water contamination, high infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, depletion of natural resources, corruption, and armed militia groups. These issues have one thing in common: oil.

Niger Delta region, placing the Nigerian oil output down to a third of its capacity” (Klare 3).

Nigeria, with a population of 190,584,690 people is the most populous country in West Africa. Marked with huge reserves of oil and natural gas, oil exploration in Nigeria first began in the year 1908, with long breaks during the first and Second World War. After the further discovery of commercial oil fields in Oloibiri in 1956, crude oil has since being produced in large quantities. Today, the country produces a maximum capacity of 2.5 million barrels of crude oil per day, and is the world’s sixth largest producer of crude oil. Crude oil export, accounts for 90% of Nigeria’s earnings. Oil exploration occurs onshore, on land and swamps, while off-shore operations occur mainly in water depths reaching 2500m. Currently, crude oil is

By the same token, the movie “Big Men” reveals the deprave business practices in Nigeria and Ghana, labeling Nigeria one of the most corrupt governments in the world. Between 1960 and 1999, the Nigerian government wasted over 440 billion dollars of Nigerian profit, mainly from oil wealth. Despite the majority of the oil being drawn from the Niger Delta, a very impoverished region, the natives of that region have no access to this abundant, valuable resource (00:25). Militant groups began to form in opposition to the oil corporations, intentionally cutting and sabotaging pipelines to get a part of the wealth. In addition to being selfish in their profits, businesses promoted the devastation and intentional deterioration of resident towns to distract from their unjust oil bunkering endeavors (01:05). Natives, specifically those who participate in oil pipe sabotaging, describe their situations as the equivalent of “shooting themselves in the foot”, as they hate that they are destroying their towns and worsening their circumstances, but see no other option for retribution. Fires

The creation of new states that was connected to the Niger Delta Region in 1967 gave a resurrection of hope to the many minorities in the region, yet sadly, even though the new state governments did its utmost best to grow and develop however was insufficient, particularly the complex of many ethnics groups to count on and in view of natural resources in some communities. In any case, a second endeavor at developing the region, which at this point has ended up synonymous with oil exploration and depletion was, nevertheless, made by the military President Ibrahim Babangida in 1992 when the Panel of the Oil Mineral Producing Area Development Commission (OMPADEC) was initiated.

The Nigerian economy has quite the surplus of natural resources they offer the potential for economic growth. “Crude oil accounted for over 95% of exports and over 65% of government revenue in 2004;” Nigeria is number eight in the world's exporter for oil. But agriculture still is a big part in the basic economic activity for the Nigerians.

In 1994, Equatorial Guinea was one of the most impoverished countries in Africa. During that time, the country had an incredibly low life expectancy of just 46 years, and the inhabitants were forced to survive on only $1 a day. Then, in 1995, they discovered a natural resource that would have the potential to change their economic well-being and quality of life forever. In this year, Equatorial Guinea discovered an immense amount of oil right off the coast of the country. Just nine years after this finding, all major US oil companies, notably Exxon-Mobile, Marathon Oil, and Amerada Hess, were drilling for oil in this once poverty-stricken country. After this notable discovery, Equatorial Guinea was generating $4 billion in revenue per year solely from the oil drilling industry. However, the inexperienced leaders that governed the country entered into a contract where they agreed to give 80%

In 1958, oil was first discovered in Nigeria. The discovery has led to the transition from agriculture-based economy to that of oil economy. One would believe that a country that produces a numerous amount of oil used to support the world with energy would have improved domestic infrastructures and economic development. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Nigeria. Nigeria has suffered since the discovery of oil and is still suffering till this day. Not only has it created conflicts between other nations and Nigeria but it has also divided the country into groups, which has fueled civil wars and tension between the government and the people. This is why the topic is a geopolitical event but before trying to understand how it is geopolitical, one should understand what geopolitics is.

The author accurately stated throughout the article that the government is removing the subsidy as act of corruption. This was shown firstly, by moving the audience towards the direction that the promises deliberated during presidential campaign were not sincere. This therefore, allows the reader to understand that the Nigeria population was not adequately or not educated about this matter. Secondly, the authors provides figures of the refineries’ lack of capacity which showcases the years of mismanagement and corruption which has led to the incapacity to refine oil in the country. Thirdly, it emphasizes that the removal of such subsidy has taken place during the worst time ever given to all the instability in the North and moreover with the energy problems that Nigeria are currently facing. However, in my opinion despite all these facts stated by the author, I strongly believe this article has only one side of the story. In other articles which were investigated for the purpose of this analysis such as it talks about the massive problem they are with smuggling (Madukwe,2012), in addition, it explains how this massive amount of money which is being used to acquire

Most children in the Niger delta have little or no education, due to lack of funds from their parents who have lost their lands and have no jobs because of limited opportunities. The Niger delta government and the oil companies have refused to look into the situation; instead they favor their close relations neglecting the masses. Corruption in the Niger delta has led some youths in taking drastic measure in order to put food on their table. For example, Ikechukwu Efe an indigene of the Niger delta said that some of his friends created their own “oil refinery”, which is made up of crude oil in metal barrels with controlled heat from fire woods. This is a dangerous process in refining crude oil but the degree of poverty in the state left his friends with no choice. If only the government of the Niger delta have created jobs with the wealth of the state Ikechukwu’s friend would not have to put their lives in danger. Until corruption is put to an abrupt the people of the Niger delta will continue to live in poverty.

Niger Delta is one of the top ten largest deltas in the world, to the south of this delta is the Atlantic Ocean and to the north is the famous River Niger. The Niger Delta region in Nigeria is blessed with the natural resource of crude oil. Crude oil was discovered in this region since 1958, this made the Nigerian government to divert their attention from agriculture to oil production due to the excessive wealth they made from this new sector. At that time, many indigenes of the region called the discovery of crude oil in the Niger Delta ‘Black gold’, but with the passage of time, many of them have been proven wrong. This is because the discovery of crude oil has brought more damages to them than benefits. The country Nigeria, is currently ranked as one of the largest crude oil producers in the world. Which makes her inevitable prone to oil spillage and huge investment proposals/projects from large oil TNC’s (Shell, Exon Mobile, and Addax petroleum). Oil spillage due to the exploration and exploitation is the major cause of environmental degradation and pollution in the Niger Delta. However, this does not reduce the importance of other environmental issues like the indiscriminate waste disposal.

These attacks on the oil companies are serious enough for the government to ‘reward’ the violence by holding discussions with these warlords. The reason for this is that the country is a petro-state. This means that the country’s economy relies heavily on oil revenue, about 50 per cent of the GDP, 95 per cent foreign exchange earnings and 80 per cent of its budgetary revenues. This came about after the civil war, beforehand Nigeria was a relatively small producer of oil, but after it became a global producer of oil, 5th biggest producer in the group OPEC. Because of this civil war, oil companies such a Shell have had to form close partnerships with the Nigerian government, and indeed military dictatorships in order to exploit the abundance of oil in the country. Very little money from the oil production has gone into the communities where the oil is

In the last twelve months, the decline in oil and gas activities has not only led to retrenchment of workers in the oil and gas sector in the Niger Delta region in Nigeria, mainly within the International Oil Companies (IOC”s), but has also affected non-related oil and gas sectors such as the contractors and vendors to the Oil and Gas sector; this has triggered several thoughts outside the box to welcome an industry diversification. The Nigerian Government, which solely depends on the oil and gas exports has also been majorly affected by the downfall in oil prices, which has kept other government sectors such as works, healthcare, transportation, and mostly agriculture paralyzed in these twelve months.

Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa, and currently its most populous country. After the oil discovery in the Niger Delta area of Oloibiri in 1956, the country has had oil has its main income producer. Before this, agriculture had the center stage; it accounted for 50% of revenue. Most of the oil exploration is done in the Niger Delta;a region that’s made up of nine states which includes; River, Cross River, AkwaIbom, Delta, Edo, Bayelsa, Imo, Abia, and Ondo. This region has an estimated population of 28 million, amounting to16.7% of Nigeria population (Emmanuel, 2004). It has however suffered the environmental impact of oil exploration with its attendant environmental degradation for years. Unfortunately, the influx of oil companies and the heightening of their operations in Niger Delta are not matched with an agenda for the development of Nigeria in general and Niger Delta in particular. The oil companies claim to have executed several projects in the host communities as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility. The claims include: construction of hospitals, roads and schools, provision of portable water, electricity, sponsorship, scholarships, and; supporting health campaign programmes among others. However, the host communities in Niger Delta seem not to have acknowledged these acclaimed community development projects by oil companies as they continue in their hostile disposition to the companies. According to Omole (2000), the relationship of

This study adopts the idiographic (qualitative) methodology, drawn from its ontological, epistemological and human nature roots, with emphasis on the subjective interpretations of the social world and events. This decision is premised on the intent of ascertaining the inherent scenarios of strategic alliances between the indigenous and foreign oil companies and to what extent this relationship has affected the local content development of the Nigerian