The Impact Of Oil Exploration 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.

The petroleum trade in chad was supposed to seriously help the poverty rate and benefit the country but it seems it's done just about the opposite. Even though the oil trade brings in money it has negatively affected the local people ESPECIALLY the people around the petroleum extraction itself. For example In the Eastern Logone region that includes the Doba Oil Basin and about 38% of Chad's population was rated 3rd poorest region of chad despite the hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil exported. the other affects on the people are endless and further contamination is always a hazard. There already has been some contamination there have been drainage canals have polluted the surface including the groundwater used by the locals,infertile and contaminated quarries have been returned to farmers without being cleaned or secured,rivers have been sullied by oil spills. These are just some of the environmental impacts the oil trade has on Chad and I think this is a good example that not all companies and corporations can benefit a country even if they bring in money. The oil trade in Chad is a very controversial topic especially in chad there are benefits economically but there are also environmental

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

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

Since the Industrial Revolution in the United States and around the world, crude oil has been a hot commodity – and unfortunately, a commodity that is non-renewable. An aspect of globalization has been the increase in the oil industry; with so many buyers for oil – gasoline companies for vehicles and machinery, especially – countries like Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and other countries have become economic stars in the global economy. Up until recently, Africa had had few major producers of this precious liquid, until the twentieth century, specifically in Nigeria. In the small delta region of Nigeria exist over 40 ethnic groups with 250 distinct dialects, specific traditional religious and cultural practices, and, being first contacted by the Portuguese in the late 1400’s, a long history of western contact (Lagassé 2000). The modern, overarching name for these groups is “Ijaw”, transmuted and then anglicized from “Izon”(also called “Ijon”, “Ijo”, or “Ujo”), meaning “truth” in their language (Ijaw Dictionary Project). They have existed harmoniously and prosperously in the delta region of Nigeria, practicing a vivacious lifestyle for centuries. However, since the 1950’s, when a wealth of natural oil was discovered in that region, these groups have been battling to preserve their health, culture, and peace in the face of a brutal globalization campaign led by oil companies and banking enterprises alike.

Nigeria's Niger Delta is one of the most oil-polluted places on the planet with more than 6,800 recorded oil spills. Millions of barrels of oil were spilled into the Niger Delta.. Some people inhabit the land around it. The water is there main resource to use. They use it for irrigation, drinking, and bathing. They use the water for their everyday needs. The water is too polluted for them to drink anymore and they can’t use the water for irrigation because it is killing all of their crops. Multiple people have suffered from illnesses from drinking the oil polluted water. Cleanups don’t “clean” the land very well even though they are supposed to clean deep into the ground. A percent of Nigerian mangrove ecosystems have been destroyed out by oil. The known effects of oil on mangroves are making the soil into acid, stop cellular respiration, and they do not let the roots get oxygen. The loss of mangrove forests does not only decrease the life of plants and animals. They also affect humans. The indigenous people living in the affected areas highly value these systems. The local people by the mangrove forest use the wood as a major

Nigeria has a population of around 180 million, making it the most populous country in Africa. Nigeria is located in a region with tropical climate and that can grow variety of crops. With their numerous resources and growing technology they have been able to have positive economic advancement. Nigeria has had improvements in five of the ten economic freedoms. This includes Freedom of corruption, labor freedom, and management of government spending ("Nigeria." Economy: Population, GDP, Inflation, Business, Trade, FDI, Corruption.). Nevertheless these large improvements in their economy has not brought human development, where most Nigerians live under the poverty line. This paper will focus on why Nigeria has not been able to use their economic prosperity in the sector of human development, this includes standard of living, health, safety, and basic necessity one needs to live a stable life. We will compare it to the state of Ghana whose economy has also flourished but has been success in human development.

The Chad Cameroon Petroleum Development and Pipeline Project is one of the largest investments in the private sector in Africa that costs approximately US$3.7 billion. The project is being funded by the World Bank and the International Financial Corporation. The involvement of these two major financial institutions is a demonstration of the rationale that the project will generate revenue that will enable the Chad and Cameroonian governments to invest more in programs that focus on reducing poverty like rural employment, education, and health. The involvement of the International Financial Corporation will be geared towards accomplishing three major roles. These are long-term financing, stabilizing role, and uplifting the quality and standard of mitigation plans and environmental assessments.

     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 have been many successful companies that are currently in the oil business and the reason why they have been successful is because of the risks that the company makes to make more money in their industry. This risk in the petroleum world could range from a new piece of equipment, purchased land or expand their production. Pioneer Petroleum is a company that is growing and they are making a conscience decision to determine the rate of return.

It is estimated that more than 2 million barrels of oil a day are extracted in the Niger delta, making Nigeria the biggest West Africa’s producer of petroleum. Its first operations begun in 1950s and were carried out by multinational corporations. The biggest gas flaring company was Shell Petroleum Development company of Nigeria Ltd, of which many of its shareholders were the Royal Dutch from Britain. Despite of legal regulation

I belong to a proud people called the Ogoni people. The Ogoni people are a minority tribe that’s in the Southeast of Nigeria and they happen to own most of the vast oil reserves in Nigeria. Why does this matter you ask? Well because they’ve been economically exploited, suffered environmental degradation and political marginalization in Nigeria for fighting for the right to self determine their destiny and keep control of their resources. Shell, a oil company that was founded in 1907 when the Dutch company practiced unfriendly environmental practices while drilling oil where people were living. This caused oil spills and polluted the water and land that was used to produce fruits and vegetables. Nigeria also allowed these practices to go on because a lot of Nigeria’s wealth came from oil. The Nigerian government also supported the efforts of Shell to get rid of the Ogoni so that they can continue to take the oil without any consequences. With the help of Shell and the Nigerian government the Ogonis were forced to go out of Nigeria as exiles. My dad came here as a refugee and I was born here. While many see that some parts of the world are doing fairly well and operate in a democracy, I believe that we as a world community should rally behind human rights and address the degradation and devastation that has plagued the Ogoni community and other indigenous

Mohammed Ali Alayli’s paper discusses how it is important to realize that it is not natural resources that are the problem; rather, it is lack of good governance and democracy. Alayli using Equatorial Guinea as a case study, he discusses how few people have benefited from the oil riches and the country ranks near the bottom of the UN human development index. He however suggests that one solution will be to increase the transparency of resource payments by firms to governments and increasing government transparency in the management of resource revenues.(Alayli, 2005)

Evidence suggests that Nigeria’s poor oil management is due to institutional and governance reasons rather than economic mismanagement alone, and corruption and the rentier nature of the state are important part of the issue; Watts (2008) categorizes Nigeria as a “rentier petrostate”. Sala-i-Martin and Subraiman (2016) main argument in their study is that the country’s mediocre long run economic performance are due to oil waste and corruption, rather than the Dutch disease effect. Natural resources lead to rent-seeking or what they call “the voracity effect”, and more than oil itself it is poor institutional quality in the country which contributed to poor economic performance with an estimation of 0.5 percent lower