Shell D’arcy Exploration and the Discovery of Oil Asimportant Foreign Exchange Earnings in Ijawland Ofniger Delta , C. 1940s - 1970

Abstract

This article explores the processes involved during the exploration for crude oil by Shell-BP and its discovery in Oloibiri Ijawland between 1946 and 1960. It argues that the granting of licences to prospective oil companies by the Federal Government was to enhance smooth production of oil to generate revenue for the nation. At the early stage of oil discovery, agricultural exports still continued to thrive in the international market until crude oil became an important foreign exchange earner for the government in the late 1960s. The paper discusses how Shell-BP despite the civil war, had by the end of 1969 recorded a production rate of one million barrels per day. The authors argue that the Federal Government had failed to use the profits accrued from oil toward the socioeconomic transformation of the Niger Delta areas and Nigeria at large. The level of poverty and human degradation within the oil-producing communities and among Nigerians, particularly the expectations of the local people for accelerated economic and social development as a result of the crude oil discovery in Ijawland, explains the underlying factor for the lingering crises in the Niger Delta region.