The Effects of Petroleum Business on Nigeria

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).

The "Curse of the Black Gold" is what they call it. The greasy money-making liquid can also cause the undoing of countries. Oil companies like Shell sometimes make as much money as the country they do business in. The hazards that come with extracting oil is understated while the rewards are often praised. To the companies, we are not important, it is the money we carry in our pockets that they care about. Shell, a billion-dollar making oil company, is slowly gaining a lot of recognition in countries as it is causing a lot of corruption due to several accidents as well as its influence on global warming. The company is most known for its fracking practices as well as its impact on Nigerian villages.

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

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%

Facts: Plaintiffs are residents of Nigeria, who claim that Dutch, British, and Nigerian corporations engaged in aggressive oil exploration and production, aided and abetted the Nigerian government in committing violations of the law of nations related to crimes against humanity and human rights abuses. Royal Dutch and Shell are parent companies incorporated in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom respectively; Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) is incorporated in Nigeria. Since 1958, SPCD has conducted oil exploration and production in the Ogoni region of Nigeria. Protesting SPDC’s activities in the region, Ogoni

The poor relationship between the oil companies and the communities in the Niger Delta is not sudden, it 's historical context dates back to as early as the 1930 's and 1950 's. It was 1937 when two British oil companies merged into what today is known as Shell. Shell replaced the initial German oil company in the area from 1908 (Umejesi, 117). Shell set up impressive human and material forces and conducted their first drilled oil well in 1951 in the city of Iho. Worry quickly struck everyone in Nigeria. Shell worried they would not find

The discovery of oil in a low-income country is often met with both excitement and dread. Many theories circle around the idea of a “resource curse” that supposedly affects countries with large amounts of resources. The resource curse essentially dictates that a country with large amounts of resources is not as likely to thrive as a country with low levels of resources. The issue with this view is that it generalizes too much; there is just as much variance in the levels of economic success between resource-rich countries as there is between them and resource-scarce countries. This is why this newly found oil in this country does not necessarily need to be met with dread, as there is a chance for success. However, this newly found potential for wealth needs to be handled with extreme care. In the following memo I will outline what the resource curse is, why some countries are affected by it and others not, and finally I will outline how this country should handle its newly found oil wealth.

oil in Nigeria. Nigeria’s large supply of high quality crude oil helped Shell climb to the top,

     Nigeria has been a country in political turmoil for a long time. The country was created in 1914 under British colonial rule and at that time it was considered a protectorate. It was not until 1960 that Nigeria received independence from the United Kingdom. One of Nigeria's problems politically is that it has over three hundred different ethnic groups. The three largest of these are the Hausa-Fulani, Igbo, and Yoruba. At the time of the independence of Nigeria it was split up into three states with each state being under the control of one of the major ethnic groups. The natural resources of the other 297 ethnic groups were exploited for the major three groups,

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.

There are very many environmental problems in the oil and gas-producing areas of Nigeria. However, not all the problems can be attributed to oil and gas operations. The most critical problems that derive primarily from oil and gas operations there, are oil spills, including groundwater pollution, surface water pollution and damage to aquatic and shallow marine life; acid rain and air quality degradation due to gas flaring; and biodiversity loss.

Given the high stakes built into the state-oil linkage in Nigeria, where oil exports account for 95 per cent of exports earnings and over 85 per cent of national revenues, politics continues to be influenced by oil. For those in power, access to oil is the ultimate prize in

Historically, the Nigerian oil and gas sector like that of many other developing countries, has been dominated by the powerful IOCs resulting into a massive outflow of resources for the payment of training and procurement

Nigeria is a resource rich nation with extensive reserves of oil and in fact, is Africa’s largest producer of oil. British Petroleum ranks Nigeria 9th in terms of the world’s oil producing nations. ( Desperate, 2012) However,