photo by Jenn Farr (Flickr CC)

Royal Dutch Shell is currently being sued over the spill in a London Court by a group of 11,000 Nigerians, including many fishermen of the Bodo region, who claim their livelihoods were destroyed.

Though 60 times Shell’s figure, the Amnesty International estimate is still half of what Martyn Day, lawyer for the Bodo communities puts the damage at.

From Reuters:

The Amnesty accusation is based on footage of one of the oil leaks sent to Washington State-based research company Accufacts, which examined the flow rate from the film and found it to be between one and three barrels a minute.

A minimum of 60 times Shell’s estimate by an independent US oil spill consultancy firm is an embarrassing figure for the global oil and gas firm.

From the Guardian:

The evidence of Shell’s bad practice in the Niger delta is mounting. Shell seems more interested in conducting a PR operation than a cleanup operation. The problem is not going away; and sadly neither is the misery for the people of Bodo.

–Patrick Naagbanton, co-ordinator of the local oil watch group Centre for Environment, Human Rights and Development (CEHRD)

Shell continues to stand by its original estimate of the spill.

photo by Sosialistisk Ungdom - SU (Flickr CC)

Lest we forget, Nigeria’s Ogoniland region is still poisoned and ecologically damaged by 50 years of unsafe, irresponsible oil drilling practices.

A new UN study (paid for by the Shell and the Nigerian government) puts the damage to the area, located on the Niger Delta, at levels even worse than previously thought. Clean up could cost $1bn and take 30 years to complete.

Meanwhile the local fishing community has seen their livelihood suffer and health issues linked to environmental toxicity plague residents.

Drinking water is contaminated, with some areas experiencing benzene levels at 900 times acceptable levels.

From BBC News:

The report, based on examinations of some 200 locations over 14 months, said Shell had created public health and safety issues by failing to apply its own procedures in the control and maintenance of oilfield infrastructure.

Spills have also been blamed on illegal refining and criminal sabotage of pipelines as well as an overall failure of successive Nigerian governments to protect Ogoniland and its people.

Click here to see a slideshow on Shell oil spills in the Niger Delta from the Guardian.

The chairman of the agency, Lord Smith, warned that the amount of illegally exported e-waste is rising and that in addition to health and environmental concerns, it is also a threat to British national security, due to the risk that sensitive information could still be stored in the computers’ hardware.

He said that waste from the UK, which includes computers, monitors, televisions and DVD players, is sent to countries in west Africa where valuable but toxic metals are removed by workers, many of whom are children.

–Telegraph

E-waste from local governments is also being illegally exported to African countries including Ghana and Nigeria. This can be the result of local authorities using unauthorized ‘recyclers’ or recycling firms cutting corners by simply shipping e-waste to developing countries rather than paying for more expensive recycling processes.

Illegal recycling is a problem that authorities are attempting to tackle across the EU, where on only a third of discarded electronic equipment is believed to be recycled according to European regulations. Rotterdam in the Netherlands is a major hub for the illegal export of electronic waste.

But even though the Dutch have led the way in cracking down on illegal e-waste exports – the European Union banned the trade in the mid-1990s – only 3% or so of the containers in Rotterdam are checked. In an average week one shipment may be caught, which could mean several containers holding 800 monitors each.

–BBC News

For more on the story, check out the following two articles:

Telegraph – Government computers illegally exported as waste

BBC News – Europe breaking electronic waste export ban

Additional resources:

Greenpeace – Where does e-waste end up?

Greenpeace – Illegal e-waste export to Nigeria tracked down

Following the e-waste trail – UK to Nigeria

photo by Socialistisk Ungdom – SU (Flickr CC)

The massive leak in the Gulf of Mexico may have been stopped, but oil still continues to spread and flow. Scientists, local communities and businesses wait for the true toll of damage to be revealed as the rest of the world turns its attentions elsewhere.

Environmentalists desperately try to prevent the fossil fuel industry from destroying another pristine environment in the icy Arctic, but the thirst for oil is strong and the geopolitics surrounding it complex.

Yet there is another place where a devastating spill is continually taking place, poisoning lush ecosystems while destroying livelihoods and lives.

In Nigeria’s Niger River delta, oil companies like Shell, Chevron and Agip pollute heavily and on a daily basis, a tragedy compounded by a lack or rule of law in the region, criminality and militant activity. A recent and ongoing United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report has identified more than 300 oil spills in the Ogoniland region of the delta.

From an article in the Guardian:

[We] observed the oil slick floating on the lake. Destroyed fishing nets were also noticed in the polluted environment. The community is faced with incessant oil spills.

–Alagoa Morris, Friends of the Earth Nigeria

According to another report in the Guardian, a three-year UN investigation places 90% of the blame for the spills on criminal gangs, with the remaining 10% attributed to ‘equipment failures and company negligence’ on the part of Shell. For some, this news is understandably not so easy to swallow:

Tonight the investigation was accused of bias by Nigerians and environmental groups who said the study – paid for by Shell and commissioned by the Nigerian government, who both have massive oil interests in the region – was unbalanced.

To be fair to Shell and Nigeria, who else but the polluter(s) should pay for the study? The criminal gangs or militias who share the blame certainly won’t. Yet, in stark contrast to the UNEP’s findings, an Amnesty International report from last year – while acknowledging criminal contribution to the problem – placed the responsibility squarely on the shoulders of Shell.

Of course, there are sociopolitical forces relating to the oil industry and pollution in Ogoniland that are not cut and dry. The unequal distribution of wealth as well as the health and security of the Ogonis are the responsibility of the Nigerian government and plainly not the concern of Shell and other oil companies operating in the region, who take full advantage of the political and socioeconomic situation in Nigeria. Pollution and poverty are acceptable blowback, as long as long as it’s criminals who take the blame.

What is incontrovertible about the UN survey is the value of the amount information it is finding concerning the extent of contamination in the Niger delta. This data will at least be invaluable for future cleanup efforts.

Additional resources:

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – Nigeria oil spills: UNEP reading out a script written by Shell

Voice of America ­– Criminal Activity Behind Oil Spills in Ogoniland

Photo by Lucarelli (Wikimedia Commons)

The Nigerian government and Italian oil giant Agip – makers of Hello Kitty motor oil – are reaping huge profits from the Nigeria’s oil reserves while local communities remain in abject poverty.

One pesky byproduct of oil extraction is natural gas which, given the facilities, can also be a source of energy and profit. Yet in the Niger Delta there is no requirement for facilities so Agip disposes of the gas by burning it in large gas flares, releasing large amounts of CO2 and resulting in hazardous health conditions for locals.

The World Bank estimates that about $30bn worth of gas is burned off every year, which is equivalent to 30 per cent of the European Union’s annual gas consumption.

–Al Jazeera English

Gas flaring is banned in much of the developing world so oil companies are required to trap the gas and use it. In the Niger Delta, there are no such rules.

Watch this video report from Al Jazeera English for more on the problem and one possible solution.

West Africa’s gas-flaring curse

Graham Land

photo by pjotter05 (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Poor agricultural yields associated with climate change have forced some villagers in northern Nigeria to turn to other ways of survival. Many residents of this desperately poor region have turned to gold mining. But due to the high concentrations of lead found in the earth alongside potential gold deposits, people – especially children – are being poisoned.

Factors such as intense poverty, increasingly unfavorable conditions for farming and soaring gold prices have combined and spurred residents of the Nigerian state of Zamfara into searching for gold along the border with neighboring Niger. Gold extraction here is a rudimentary and unsafe process, exposing the miners to mercury as well as extremely high levels of lead.

From an Associated Press article:

Many had played in homes or village common areas contaminated by lead. The level of exposure was so high that most blood samples were off the scale on lead-screening machines.

So far hundreds have been exposed and over 160 have died. Children under 5 are the most vulnerable to lead poisoning, which can cause brain damage, high blood pressure, nervous disorders and reproductive problems as well as death.

For more on this tragic story, see the below video report from Al Jazeera English.

Nigeria gold hunt kills children

by Graham Land

Additional resources:

AFP – Nigeria’s lead poison outbreak unprecedented : CDC

photo by Sosialistisk Ungdom – SU (source: Flickr Creative Commons)

Large spills in Nigeria are routine, and oil companies go largely unpunished for destroying the local environment as well as poisoning the human population.

Some of the damage is due to actions by rebel groups and criminals, who attack pipelines, but rusty old pipes continually leak oil, while gas flares both waste a valuable natural resource as well as release toxic pollution and greenhouse gasses.

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP‘s Deepwater Horizon rig last month.

–Observer

Neither the Nigerian government nor the oil companies demonstrate concern for the environment or the people suffering in this region, considered the oil pollution capital of the world. Environmental and human rights activists claim that hundreds of spills happen yearly in the Niger delta.

Deepwater Horizon may have exceed Exxon Valdez, but within a few years in Nigeria offshore spills from four locations dwarfed the scale of the Exxon Valdez disaster many times over. Estimates put spill volumes in the Niger delta among the worst on the planet, but they do not include the crude oil from waste water and gas flares. Companies such as Shell continue to avoid independent monitoring and keep key data secret.

– Ben Amunwa, London-based oil watch group Platform

Read the entire article ‘Nigeria’s agony dwarfs the Gulf oil spill. The US and Europe ignore it’ by John Vidal in the Observer.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

The West African nation of Nigeria is home to some of the richest and most diverse ecological systems in the world. The Niger River Delta in particular, contains four separate ecosystems: coastal barrier islands, mangrove swamp forests, freshwater swamps, and lowland rain forests. Nigeria also has a major petroleum industry, ranking 12^th in the world for production, 10^th for known reserves and 8^th in oil export. Unfortunately the environmental treasure trove that is the Niger Delta is also the country’s main oil producing region.

Amnesty International has spearheaded a campaign against Shell Oil in Nigeria. According to a BBC News report from June 30^th, 2009 Amnesty claims that “the oil industry has resulted in impoverishment, conflict, human rights abuses in the region” as well as massive spills and pollution, of which the Nigerian government does not hold the petroleum companies accountable for. Shell maintains that 85% of this pollution comes from sabotage and attacks by local militants. Nigeria is a notoriously dangerous place for foreign oil workers, who risk being kidnapped or worse. Though the militants claim that they are fighting for the rights of the local population, it is also clearly  a roundabout, albeit unscrupulous way for them to make money from Nigeria’s petroleum business.

Nigeria’s oil industry has its roots in British colonialism and it seems that much of the industry is still under foreign control, with various oil companies competing in a climate of ethnic and civil unrest. Political corruption, instability and poor management by the government are exploited and companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Exxon-Mobil have avoided compliance with regulations and the maintenance of leaky pipelines. The hostility of the militants and of a population who feel that they have not seen the rewards of their own country’s resources contribute to a climate that is both fearful and lax, yet at the same time very profitable for the companies and the Nigerian government.

Gas flaring

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Another shocking practice of the oil industry in Nigeria is natural gas flaring, which is the burning off of excess gas released during oil production. Gas flaring results in massive amounts of toxic pollution and greenhouse gasses, causing compound negative effects such as poisoning plants, people and wildlife as well as choking the air and contributing to climate change. According to research scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, some gas flares are so large it is said they can be spotted from space. Though flaring is known to be extremely wasteful and environmentally harmful, it maximizes crude oil production and harvesting this gas for use is more costly and less convenient than extracting natural gas from deposits. This is a typical example of what happens when industry is unregulated or laws are not enforced: a clear lack of corporate responsibility and a willingness by companies to maximize profits, whatever the human and environmental cost.

Hope for the future?

In a landmark case conducted at a federal court in New York, Shell recently paid $15.5 million to victims of human rights abuses including the families of nine murdered Nigerians, among them writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. The company still faces prosecution in international court for livelihood damages to Nigerian fishermen and farmers from oil spills. Hopefully cases like these will have some significant impact on how large corporations conduct themselves in Nigeria and other developing countries, both in terms of human rights and environmental responsibility.

Watch this Al Jazeera English report on the oil industry around the Niger Delta, where oil spills, gas flaring and other harmful practices carry on amidst an environment rife with fear and shocking poverty. This multi billion-dollar industry flourishes in a place where ‘most get by on less than a dollar a day […] neglected in one of the richest nations on earth’.

Grinding poverty in oil-rich Niger Delta – Nov 15 2007 Al Jazeera

English

By Graham Land