[THS] Nigeria`s agony dwarfs Gulf oil spill

[The Harder Stuff in news and commentary]

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/nigerias-agony-dwarfs-gulf-oil-spill/

Nigeria’s agony dwarfs Gulf oil spill
by John Vidal on May 31, 2010
Keywords: Niger Delta, Nigeria, oil spill, pollution, Shell Oil

We reached the edge of the oil spill near the Nigerian village of Otuegwe after a long
hike through cassava plantations. Ahead of us lay swamp. We waded into the warm
tropical water and began swimming, cameras and notebooks held above our heads.
We could smell the oil long before we saw it — the stench of garage forecourts and
rotting vegetation hanging thickly in the air.

The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in
pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many
hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that criss-cross the Niger delta had corroded and
spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were
polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked.

“We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots,” said Chief Promise, village leader of
Otuegwe and our guide. “This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our
forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.”

    More oil is spilled from the Niger delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping
stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico.

That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics,
writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and
recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.

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.

That disaster, which claimed the lives of 11 rig workers, has made headlines round
the world. By contrast, little information has emerged about the damage inflicted on
the Niger delta. Yet the destruction there provides us with a far more accurate
picture of the price we have to pay for drilling oil today.

Leak after spill after leak

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled
more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was
stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked
by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1 billion in
compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will
succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the
nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a
large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in
Ogoniland.

“We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years
old,” said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.

    With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States
imports and is the world capital of oil pollution.

This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno: “Oil
companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we
have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is
not tolerable.”

With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States
imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural
communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more
than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their
land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US
government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from
pollution.

“If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the
company would have paid much attention,” said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of
the Ogoni people. “This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta.”

“The oil companies just ignore it. The lawmakers do not care and people must live
with pollution daily. The situation is now worse than it was 30 years ago. Nothing is
changing. When I see the efforts that are being made in the US, I feel a great sense
of sadness at the double standards. What they do in the US or in Europe is very
different.”

“We see frantic efforts being made to stop the spill in the US,” said Nnimo Bassey,
Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International. “But in Nigeria, oil companies
largely ignore their spills, cover them up and destroy people’s livelihood and
environments. The Gulf spill can be seen as a metaphor for what is happening daily
in the oilfields of Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

“This has gone on for 50 years in Nigeria. People depend completely on the
environment for their drinking water and farming and fishing. They are amazed that
the president of the US can be making speeches daily, because in Nigeria people
there would not hear a whimper,” he said.

Calculations and claims

It is impossible to know how much oil is spilled in the Niger delta each year because
the companies and the government keep that secret. However, two major
independent investigations over the past four years suggest that as much is spilled at
sea, in the swamps and on land every year as has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico so
far.

One report, compiled by WWF UK, the World Conservation Union and representatives
from the Nigerian federal government and the Nigerian Conservation Foundation,
calculated in 2006 that up to 1.5 million tons of oil — 50 times the pollution unleashed
in the Exxon Valdez tanker disaster in Alaska — has been spilled in the delta over the
past half century. Last year Amnesty calculated that the equivalent of at least 9
million barrels of oil was spilled and accused the oil companies of a human rights
outrage.

    Up to 1.5 million tons of oil — 50 times the pollution unleashed in the Exxon Valdez
tanker disaster in Alaska — has been spilled in the Niger delta over the past half
century.

According to Nigerian federal government figures, there were more than 7,000 spills
between 1970 and 2000, and there are 2,000 official major spillages sites, many
going back decades, with thousands of smaller ones still waiting to be cleared up.
More than 1,000 spill cases have been filed against Shell alone.

Last month Shell admitted to spilling 14,000 tonnes of oil in 2009. The majority, said
the company, was lost through two incidents — one in which the company claims
that thieves damaged a well-head at its Odidi field and another where militants
bombed the Trans Escravos pipeline.

Shell, which works in partnership with the Nigerian government in the delta, says
that 98% of all its oil spills are caused by vandalism, theft or sabotage by militants
and only a minimal amount by deteriorating infrastructure.

“We had 132 spills last year, as against 175 on average. Safety valves were
vandalised; one pipe had 300 illegal taps. We found five explosive devices on one.
Sometimes communities do not give us access to clean up the pollution because they
can make more money from compensation,” said a spokesman.

“We have a full-time oil spill response team. Last year we replaced 197 miles of
pipeline and are using every known way to clean up pollution, including microbes.
We are committed to cleaning up any spill as fast as possible and for whatever
reason they occur.”

These claims are hotly disputed by communities and environmental watchdog
groups. They mostly blame the companies’ vast network of rusting pipes and storage
tanks, corroding pipelines, semi-derelict pumping stations and old wellheads, as well
as tankers and vessels cleaning out tanks.

Mind-boggling scale

The scale of the pollution is mind-boggling. The government’s national oil spill
detection and response agency (Nosdra) says that between 1976 and 1996 alone,
more than 2.4 million barrels contaminated the environment.

“Oil spills and the dumping of oil into waterways has been extensive, often poisoning
drinking water and destroying vegetation. These incidents have become common
due to the lack of laws and enforcement measures within the existing political
regime,” said a spokesman for Nosdra.

    In Nigeria, both companies and government have come to treat an extraordinary
level of oil spills as the norm. — Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth
International

The sense of outrage is widespread. “There are more than 300 spills, major and
minor, a year,” said Bassey. “It happens all the year round. The whole environment
is devastated. The latest revelations highlight the massive difference in the response
to oil spills. In Nigeria, both companies and government have come to treat an
extraordinary level of oil spills as the norm.”

A spokesman for the Stakeholder Democracy Network in Lagos, which works to
empower those in communities affected by the oil companies’ activities, said: “The
response to the spill in the United States should serve as a stiff reminder as to how
far spill management in Nigeria has drifted from standards across the world.”

Above the law

Other voices of protest point out that the world has overlooked the scale of the
environmental impact. Activist Ben Amunwa, of the London-based oil watch group
Platform, said: “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.”

    Major spills are likely to increase in the coming years as the industry strives to
extract oil from increasingly remote and difficult terrains. — An industry insider

Worse may be to come. One industry insider, who asked not to be named, said:
“Major spills are likely to increase in the coming years as the industry strives to extract
oil from increasingly remote and difficult terrains. Future supplies will be offshore,
deeper and harder to work. When things go wrong, it will be harder to respond.”

Judith Kimerling, a professor of law and policy at the City University of New York and
author of Amazon Crude, a book about oil development in Ecuador, said: “Spills,
leaks and deliberate discharges are happening in oilfields all over the world and very
few people seem to care.”

There is an overwhelming sense that the big oil companies act as if they are beyond
the law. Bassey said: “What we conclude from the Gulf of Mexico pollution incident is
that the oil companies are out of control.

“It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here.
In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the
planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken
to the international court of justice.”

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This article was originally published on guardian.co.uk at 00.04 BST on Sunday 30
May 2010.