Oil And Gas Production In NigeriaThe Niger Delta Crises
BY
Stephen Asuquo Okon
MSc. Petroleum Engineering
Faculty of Earthscience
University of Miskolc
Outline
Nigeria at a glance
A brief overview of the Niger Delta
 Oil and Gas Production in Nigeria
The Crises
The Culprits
Recommendations
Conclusion
References
Nigeria at a glance
• Location- West Africa (
between 4 and 13o East longitude and 4
and 14o North latitude)
•
Land area- 923,800km
• Population-190,886,311 (7th
largest in the world).
• Natural Resources- Crude Oil,
Natural Gas, Coal, Iron Ore and
Limestone
• GDP- $1.169 trillion
(2018 estimate, 23rd in the world)
• GINI Index- 48.8 (2013)
Source-https://www.cia.gov/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigeria
A Brief Overview of the Niger Delta
Location: S/Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria
Environmental Resources: freshwater
swamp, mangrove swamp, beach
ridges, sand bars, lagoons marshes and
tidal channels, Bitumen Coal, Oil and
gas, etc.
Population: over 30million
Oil and Gas Production in Nigeria
 1956-start of Oil
production in Oloibiri
by Shell.
 1977- NNOC
(commecial) and MPR
merged into NNPC
 Currently, largest oil
producer in Africa and
13th in the world
• 1.45 bilion BBL per
year
• Currently oil production
per day- 1.99MM BBL
• About 95 % of its oil
come from the Niger
Delta
The Crises
The Beginnings
 The Niger Delta is the most prolific sedimentary
basin in Nigeria
 First oil discovery and commercial production by
Shell D’Arcy in Oloibiri (present day Delta state)
in 1956.
 Between 1960 and 1971, exploration and
production licences were granted to oil majors
who registered their presence in the Niger Delta
landscape.
The Beginnings Cont’d
Oil majors conducted their operations with
no respect for the environment.
There was wide spread and unabated
pollution of water, farmland and air.
The situation became aggravated by weak
and ineffective environmental regulation.
This climaxed in an environmental crisis
within 30years of opration..
Environmental Impacts of Oil and Gas
Operations in the Niger Delta
Upstream activities of exploration, drilling, production and
transportation has impacted the Niger Delta environment in the
following ways as shown below:
Loss of mangrove
Destruction of creeks
Destruction of birds
Environmental Impacts of Oil and Gas
Operations in the Niger Delta
Destruction of aquatic lives
Oil spillage from faulty pipe
Gas flaring
Impact of acid rain on rooftops
Loss of domestic water source
Pipeline explosion
The Struggle
The Ogoni Nine- a group of human
and environment activist who
opposed and publicly criticised the
operation of Royal Dutch shell.
 Ken Saro Wiwa and his Ogoni nine
members forced out Shell from
Ogoni land in 1993..
The Struggle Cont’d
Ken Saro Wiwa and
his Ogoni nine
members were
charged with treason
and executed by
hanging on 10th
November, 1995.
The Ogoni Nine
Niger Delta Youth Unrest
• Militancy
• Kidnapping of oil
expatriates
• Destruction of oil and
gas installations
Niger Delta militancy
The Culprits
The culprits of the Niger Delta Crisis are:
The Nigerian Government
The Oil companies
The communities
Intervention Efforts
The Niger Delta
Development Commission
(NDDC).
 Established in 2000 with the
mission of facilitating the
rapid, even and sustainable
development of the Niger
Delta.
 Transform it into a region
that is economically
prosperous, socially stable,
ecologically regenerative
and politically peaceful.
The Dispensation
Presidential Amnesty
 Introduce in 2009 with the
sole purpose of:
 Having the Niger Delta
militants lay down their
arms.
 To facilitate the
rehabilitation and
development of the Niger
Delta.
 To train and empower the
Niger Delta youths.
Cleaning Efforts
 Oil spill in the Niger
Delta has never been
properly and
professionally carried out
according to Amnesty
Intertional (Amnesty,
2009).
 In 2015, a United Nation
Environment Programme
committee stated that
$1bn will be required to
clean up Ogoni land
(Vidal, 2015)
Shell accepted
responsibility of spill
and agreed to
contribute $10m to
the fund .
Up to today, no
effective clean up
has begun.
Recommendations
 Complete remediation of all areas of oil and gas production.
 Government should back out completely from joint venture.
 Government must pay special attention to the infrastructural
and social development of the Niger Delta region.
 Gas processing and transportation infrastructures must be
installed close to oil and gas fields
Conclusion
Oil and gas operation is a High
Environmental Impact (HEI) activity.
The Niger Delta is a High Consequence Area
(HCA).
Carrying out an HEI in an HCA requires
strict adherence to environmental rules and
regulations.
 This is the key for successful oil and gas
exploration and production in the Niger Delta
of Nigeria.
References
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UPSTREAM PETROLEUM OPERATION AREAS OF NIGER DELTA, NIGERIA. ENERGY
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