Abstract
Since the discovery of oil in the Niger Delta region, the sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s economy came at a huge environmental cost involving recurrent spills resulting in the spewing of oil into sensitive ecosystems. In the process, gas flaring from the industry has accelerated at an alarming rate and degrading the fragile mangrove ecosystem. The problems are characterized by widespread pollution of water resources and threats to the surrounding ecology in the form of deforestation, loss of habitats, and damage to biodiversity. Yet very little has been done to fully assess the impacts on the Delta region. In that light, this research uses mix-scale methods of GIS and descriptive statistics to assess the environmental liabilities of petroleum activities in Southern Nigeria from 1963-2013. Emphasis is on the issues, ecological analysis of the impacts, factors and spatial analysis. While the results point to changes in production and ecosystem degradation prompted by the concentration of greenhouse gases, rise in CO2 emissions, widespread incidents of gas flaring and oil spills. GIS mappings show a gradual dispersion of various liabilities such as fire outbreaks at facilities all through 2002-2003 along with visible presence of gas flaring in the 2000s followed by a robust spread of oil spills across various states in the Delta between the periods of the 1980s-1990s and a reemergence in the 2000s. The spatial cluster of supply infrastructure stayed intact while oil shipments to different zones in Nigeria fluctuated in the South with slight increases in the North from 2007-2013. With the ecological liabilities linked to socio-economic factors of ineffective guidelines, local demands and oil exports, the paper proffered suggestions ranging from the strengthening of policy to continued impact assessment.
Highlights
With its endowed deposits largely concentrated in the Deep South, the oil and gas sector in the Niger Delta region has for years dominated Nigeria’s economy with little consideration for environmental liabilities
The spatial information for the research was obtained from the United States Geological Surveys (USGS), The Oak Ridge National Energy Laboratory, The US Department of Energy, The Energy Information Administration (EIA), Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC) and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and an Environmental NGO, Environmental Rights Action (ERA)
To better understand the ecosystem risks posed by gas flaring and the liabilities involved in the Niger Delta, one needs to consider such indicators as gas production, the amount utilized, the percentage of flares as a measure of the activity in the region under three different phases from 1991-1996, 1997-2003 and 2004 through 2013
Summary
With its endowed deposits largely concentrated in the Deep South, the oil and gas sector in the Niger Delta region has for years dominated Nigeria’s economy with little consideration for environmental liabilities. Being Africa’s leading producer, the country at the global level ranks in the top 10 among oil producers [1], with most of the output in the Niger Delta region delineated by the boundaries of nine states made up of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers. Notwithstanding, the glowing profile being painted, ecological liabilities such as oil spills have had a major. Merem et al.: Assessing Ecosystem Liabilities of Oil and Gas Activities in Southern Nigeria
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