By Uthman Akinbola
[15/04/13]
The petroleum industry is the backbone of the
Nigerian economy, accounting for over 90% of Nigeria’s total foreign exchange
revenue. Nigeria is about the seventh largest producer in the world and the largest
in Africa. Current daily production of crude oil in Nigeria is over 2 million
barrels. However, there is an environmental cost of this economic gain to the
Nigerian state. There is always an environmental
cost of oil and gas exploration to any oil producing nation!
The world has seen several
environmental sustenance efforts driven by the United Nations (through UNEP).
From the environmental protection focus of 1972 Stockholm Protocol to the
‘Sustainable Development’ drive of the 1987 Brundtland Report. It was then that
sustainable development was said to be about intergenerational equity. We also
had. the Rio Earth
Conference i.e. ECO-92 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where debates centred around
“Environment and Development” (having Man as the focus of the issue). There was
also the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, where reductions of pollutant emissions were
proposed.
Just last year (2012) the
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan attended the summit marking the 20 years
of the Rio Earth Conference in Brazil. The focus was still sustainable
environmental development.
However, Nigeria has not gained
optimally from these efforts and also from the economic benefits derivable from
petroleum. (The Gulf states are examples of economies that have gained
immensely from the exploration of oil.)
Despite the overwhelming
dependence on petroleum for man’s energy needs (and thus the massive
exploitation of the oil resourse), over the last couple of decades world’s
total reserves have actually gone up rather than down, as revealed in a paper
in December, 2012 by Amama Mbabazi, the Ugandan Prime Minister. Also, we have
read from several other reports that more oil and gas discoveries have been
made on the African continent. This accounts for the increased presence of
international economic and political power brokers in our own Gulf of Guinea,
and hence offshore Nigeria.
The August 2011 UNEP
Environmental assessment report on Ogoni land (in Rivers State Nigeria – one of
the OPAs) states:
Oil exploration
and production projects may have impacts on the natural environment long before
any oil is actually produced. These are complex, multi-faceted projects, with
many different phases, including: land survey, land clearance for seismic
lines, establishment of seismic and drilling camps, site preparation,
infrastracture construction, drilling for oil (even when the effort is
unsuccessful) and development of transportation infrastructure. Once a facility
begins operating, others issues have to be dealt with, such as spills caused
during oil production and the disposal of water (often salty and known as
‘produced water’) and flaring of gas (‘produced gas’) generated alongside the
oil. All of these activities and their effects leave an environmental
footprint.
Normally, the dillema of an oil
producing state is ‘the exploration and production of oil for economic gains
without upsetting the environment’. However, the situation of Nigeria is that this
economic benefit ordinarily derivable from oil is frittered away, and no
serious effort to protect the environment has been made. So the Nigerian state
has no substantial economic gain to show for the environmental devastation from
oil exploration. A case of double jeopardy. This is the first issue the
Nigerian people must address.
The second issue is the roll-back
of the already done damage to the environment. How do we institutionalise the
restoration and regenration of the OPAs? How do we achieve the roll-back of the
over four-decade long degradation that the OPAs air and water media, land and
ecological biodiversity have witnessed? This is a challenge that we must
confront.
Three main sources of
hydrocarbon pollution in the oil producing areas are – oil spills; gas flares;
and effluent and waste discharges. The major causes of the spill incidences
include pipelines and flow lines leakage/blowouts, blowouts from well-heads and
spills from flowstations. It also includes sabotage of oil facilities. Oil
production involves the burning of hydrocarbon gases. The flaring of natural or
associated gas is done as a by-product of the drilling of crude oil. Gas flares
has negative impact on the local ecology and climate. One of the impacts, aside
the raising of surrounding temperature, is light pollution, which subjects the
living organism around the vicinity of the flare to 24-hour daylight. This
destabilises diurnality and night-time patterns in animals.
The OPAs have experienced many
major oil spills since production began in 1958 thereabouts. For instance.. The
Niger Delta experienced two major oil spills, the
Funiwa oil well blowout in 1980 and the
Jones Creek oil spillage in 1998 that resulted in the greatest mangrove forest devastation ever recorded worldwide as stated in United Nations
Development Program’s (UNDP) report on Nigeria in 2006.
The World Bank (2005)
estimated that Nigeria flares about 75 per cent of the gas it produces due to
the lack of a local market and infrastructure. This is an evidence of
unsustainable production.
Another important issue
is that about human development.
Generally, the communities from which oil is
drilled often see the oil companies as vampires exploiting their resources,
usually, to the point of exhaustion with little or no benefit to the people.
Addressing oil security and
illegal bunkering is also important, for this erodes the revenue acruable to
the FG. It also causes a lot of environmental damage. I donot believe that
appealing to the international community to help us fight illegal oil bunkering
will necessarily solve the problem.
There is no doubt that the oil
and gas sector is very crucial in the industrial advances made by man and its
importance is aptly described by Amama Mbabazi, the Prime minister of Uganda
when he opined that: ‘Oil is a strategic resource that contributes to economic
oportunity and energy security for the global market. Oil plays a dominant role
in meeting the world’s energy needs, and this situation is expected to continue
for decades to come. Even with the investments countries are making in
renewable energy, energy efficiency and other measures to support a low-carbon
economy, the International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook for 2009 still
expects world oil demand to grow by one percent per year until 2030.’
He also asserted that ‘oil and
gas are absolutely necessary to the world’s industrial economies. Together,
they supply two-thirds of the world’s energy consumption. They also form the
building blocks of over 30,000 different chemicals.’ This is why we have to
take the oil industry with all seriousness and take maximum advantage of it for
a robust national development.
Nonetheless, we must be mindful
of the environmental impact of petroleum exploration, and strive to undo the
mistake of the past, while embarking on measures to protect the environment
against future degradation.
Way Forward
The
Niger Delta Regional Master Plan is one important solution. The NDDC serving as
Niger Delta Policy Council should address the Niger Delta policy issues and
work to implement and ensure the success of the initiatives in 25, or so, areas
covered in the Master Plan. Thus, many
stakeholders must work together to achieve meaningful change. All levels of government
and the NDDC, the oil companies, the organized private sector, civil society
organizations and development agencies should form partnerships around the
Master Plan for sustainable development and the attainment of the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
The United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) Environmental Assessment report on Ogoni land
(August 2011) has recommended some solutions, and some of these are applicable
to the entire oil producing areas.
It is pertinent that Nigerian
government study the UNEP report and work to adapt the recommendations therein
to the entire OPAs.
Some of the recommendations
include:
Due to the wide extent of contamination in Ogoni land and
nearby areas, and the varying degrees of degradation, there will not be one
single clean-up technique appropriate for the entire area. A combination of
approaches will therefore need to be considered, ranging from active
intervention for cleaning the top soil and replanting mangrove to passive
monitoring of natural regeneration. Practical action at the regulatory,
operational and monitoring levels is also proposed.
Comprehensive review of existing Nigerian legislation on
contaminated site clean-up considering recent international developments in
regulation and incorporating community consultation to determine remediation
closure levels, so that decisions on new legislation are seen as both
transparent and inclusive.
A Centre of Excellence for Environmental Restoration should be
established in Ogoni land to
promote learning in other areas impacted by oil contamination, in the Niger Delta and elsewhere in the world. Offering a range of activities and services, the Centre could run
training courses in environmental
monitoring and restoration and
ultimately become a model for
environmental restoration, attracting international attention.
Another important solution is
that the Federal Government
should institutionalize a form of the Community Action for a Renewed
Environment (CARE) programme operated in the United States. It is a competitive
grant programme that offers an innovative way for a community to organize and
take action to reduce toxic pollution in its local environment, such that the
kind of relationship and arrangements that allow some supposed elders and
leaders, and few privileged youths, benefit from special treatment at the
expense of the majority in the Niger Delta would be obliterated. The ‘rugged’
individualism along and within ethnic lines in existence at present does not
augur well for environmental sustenance. Through that programme any community
within the Niger Delta creates a partnership that implements solutions to
reduce releases of toxic pollutants and minimize people's exposure to them. This
programme may even be adapted for the whole of Nigeria through the Federal
Ministry of Environment. In any case, it helps communities tread the path to a
renewed environment.
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) may be a good step in the
right direction. Thus, it should be seriously and sincerely addressed. National
interest should override personal, regional and all other considerations. I
believe that the focus or rallying point should be the maintenance of
environmental fairness and justice for all. This the national assembly must
take cognisance of in their deliberations towards achieving national
development.
The issue of concentrating power
or control of oil resource and licenses in the president’s hand through the
minister of petroleum resources must be looked into. This is the same approach
the Ugandan Oil Exploration Bill has taken and which is not good for the
interest of the entire nation. We are aware of the self-styled dictator
Museveni had turned himself into in Uganda, so one was not surprised that he
pushed for such in the country’s oil bill. Is that the way we want to go?
It is better for a state to have
such powers vested on government agencies and institutions rather than
individual office holders, since agencies perform statutory functions often
outside the direct supervision of the executive arm of government. This
prevents subjecting the control of an important national resource like oil to
the whims and caprices of one man or woman.
