Royal Dutch Shell Environmentally Degrades Nigeria's Niger Delta Region: A Land of Blacks

Abstract

In April 2010, global citizens were engrossed with media headlines about the British Petroleum (BP) Deep Horizon oil spill (hereinafter BP spill) that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP spill flowed for three months, and it was estimated that 4.9 million barrels of crude oil had been released into the waters,1 exceeding the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska. One has to now ponder, who was engrossed in headlines that have described countless amounts of oil spills that have occurred in Nigeria's Niger Delta over the last five decades? In the 1970s, Niger Delta spillage amounted to more than four times that of the Exxon Valdez tragedy.2 In 2004, the United States Central Intelligence Agency reported that the Niger Delta had suffered the equivalent of ten Exxon Valdez spills.3 Additionally, 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,4 and Royal Dutch Shell (Shell) has been a major contributing factor. In addition to it's oil spills, excessive toxic waste dumping, and high rates of gas flaring, Shell employs sub-standard oil spillage and pollution techniques in Nigeria, far beyond any other country where it operates. Although this environmental degradation has been occurring for fifty years without clean-up, Shell was extremely helpful in offering its services and vessels to combat the BP spill. Sadly, Shell has not shown the same compassion and concern in the Niger Delta, a “Land of Blacks.”