The Giant Bomu Oil Field Essay

America has been dependant on oil since the 1800’s and the invention of modern machinery. From skin care products to the gasoline in our cars and engines, petroleum is the basis of almost everything we use for everyday life. Without oil the nation could not meet the energy demands we need to survive. Continued exploration has been the topic of heated debate among supporters and opponents, especially when it comes to offshore drilling. My goal here is to show the differing view points of drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and present a better understanding from a national perspective. Drilling for our own offshore oil reserves can save the United States billions of dollars.

Nigeria has become the fastest growing country in Africa, its coastal ports are the heart and soul of its economy. Since its creation by the British Empire, there has been a civil breakdown and conflict among its tribal leaders. However, their religious understanding between Islam and Christianity has kept them at peace amidst themselves throughout time. The last few years, the government has developed itself into a functioning federation, the people are able to notice how outside influence has improved their daily lives.

As Josh Fox, an American film writer and environmental activist, once said, "The problem is that everywhere the oil drilling industry goes, a trail of water contamination, air pollution, health concerns, and betrayal of basic American civic and community values follows." In making this comment, Fox argues that the expansion of the oil drilling industry should be limited because it presents many risks to the environment and the quality of life for countless people. The expansion of oil drilling is a major ethical dilemma in modern times as the government is creating reserves in which oil drilling companies are not allowed to explore. Oil exploration is needed for the industry to continue supplying the country with fuel, and gas prices will rise as the resources diminish. However, opening up regions to oil drilling will have detrimental effects on the environment and may put the future of humanity in danger because the use of oil is not sustainable. In debating this topic, it is important to consider the effects on the common good and the protection of the environment. Rather than opening federally reserved lands and waters to oil drilling, the United

Shell Oil company began oil exploitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria in 1956. It became evident that for the Ogoni, the environmental and social costs of oil exploitation would be painfully high. Beginning December 1992, the people of Ogoni issued a thirty-day demand notice to Shell, which raised the alarm bell of an after struggle between the company and the Ogoni people. This demand notice was followed almost immediately by series of non-violent activities including the Ogoni protest of January 4th, 1993, in what was regarded as Ogoni Day. In the light of the foregoing developments, by the first quarter of 1993, Shell withdrew from Ogoniland, citing the hostile attitude of the Ogoni community to the company’s activities. Around April of the same year, Shell, through its contractor, went back under the protection of the Nigerian military to construct an oil pipeline. This was met with peaceful protests by Ogoni women whose farmlands were to be traveled over by the pipelines, leading to the destruction of their crops without any compensation. Rather than deal with the issues that had been raised by the women, the military

For example, Shell Oil, an MNC (Multi National Corporation), extracted 50% of Nigeria’s yearly crude output, and 14% of its own output from the Niger delta region (The Changing Nature of Third World Exploitation, 1995). Though a large number of the local populace was recruited by Shell to serve as the basic labor force, there has been no change in the deplorable conditions the locals were living in. Over a period of 15 years, due to massive and widespread oil spills, heavy land degradation of the alluvial soil has taken place. The locals, who come from an agriculture based society, have in effect, been deprived of their ancestral way of life, their heritage, all due to the greed driven actions of the partly

In 1956 oil was discovered in the Niger Delta, which is located in the southern region of Nigeria, near the Atlantic Ocean. The government nationalized and centralized the commodity, which lead to increased opportunities for corruption and patronage in the government. Militant groups actively destroy pipelines and set the oil on fire as a message to the government that they have access to the pipelines and will continue to sabotage them until a change is made to alleviate poverty and better the local populations. One Nigerian man is quoted saying, “what comes out of the ground, makes Big Men”.

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

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.

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.

crude oil allowed in at the bottom of the tower at a time so that the

Imagine a smog covered world that is desolate and lifeless. This is not a dystopian fantasy but a very likely reality if we do not take action. TransCanada has been attempting to construct an extension to the Keystone XL pipeline since 2005, but they have accumulated little success. The pipeline has garnered criticism as a result of the increased pollution that extracting the petroleum from the Alberta oil sands would cause. While some believe the pipeline would benefit the economy, the short term material benefits are minimal compared to the eternal reward of creating clean energy. While it is extremely difficult for the world to replace oil entirely, I believe we must attempt in order to save the planet.

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

Nigeria and Angola are both West African countries plagued by the resource curse. The countries are teeming with oil, ranking Nigeria as Africa’s largest oil producer and Angola as the second largest oil producer. In 2014, it was reported that Nigeria was responsible for producing 2.4 million barrels of oil per day and Angola produced 1.8 million barrels of oil per day. While these numbers have fluctuated greatly in the past, both countries still remain at the top as Africa’s oil producers (Carpenter; Ajayi). The production of oil in Nigeria and Angola has brought in a great deal of profit to both countries, however, it has also come along with a number of complications. As Ajayi writes, “fuel abundance in less developed countries tends to

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,