The Effects of Oil Companies in Nigeria - Essay Example

Formal Proposal Introduction According Taillant & Picolotti 23), the world all over, people are experiencing the consequences of ecological diminish, from water scarcity to fish kills to landslides on deforested slopes. Those who have been affected by sheer environmental degradation tend to come from susceptible segments of community, racial and cultural minorities and the poor, who too often bear an unequal baggage of such violation. Progressively, many crucial human rights are being put at risk, as the rights to wellbeing affected by contagion of resources, or the right to assets and customs bargained by industrial interference into native lands. In spite of the clear connection between ecological degradation and human suffering, human rights abuses and ecological deprivation have been regarded by most institutions and administrations as isolated concerns. Only as human rights campaigners have the tendencies to put concentration chiefly on natural resources conservation without dealing with human effects of environmental abuses. Accordingly, victims of ecological deprivation are undefended by the laws and mechanisms laid out to handle human rights violations. Human rights activism presents a crucial opportunity to tackle the issue of human impacts of ecological degradation and can serve as a catalyst for encouraging concepts and action in the actual world. Environmental setbacks are more handle to address than most believe. Every man, woman, and child has the right to a safe and healthy ecosystem. The fact is while international standards and systems have been set aside as legal ventures, implementation has always been dominated by international relations. This paper seeks to look at the effects of oil companies in Nigeria the environment (Emeseh 45-60) According to Kalu and Ngozi (19-38), the Niger Delta in Nigeria has been the center of focus of environmentalist, human rights promoters and fair trade unionists across the globe. The trial and execution of radical environmentalist Ken-Saro-Wiwa and eight other cohorts of the Ogoni ethnic minority made universal headlines. The then non-violent protests of the Ogoni people make world-attention too. The activities of large oil firms such like Shell Elf, Agip and Mobil, amid others have caused many worries and backlash. A sequence of exploitive and fraudulent government in Nigeria have been endorsed and sustained by western administrations and oil companies, attentive on gaining from the fossils fuels that can be exploited. As individuals and transitional oil companies have been dueling over this “black gold” in the delta region, massive poverty and ecological devastation have amounted. The Ogoni, Ijaw among other communities in the Niger Delta, those who have been adversely affected for decades attempting to fight for themselves, their ecological and their central human and economic rights. The Nigerian administrations and oil corporations have reacted by cruelly silencing the dissenting voices. According to the Human Rights Watchdog, international oil corporations are normally linked to the violations committed by the Nigerian military and police. There have been many explicit instances of company motivations in the .Nigerian military suppressing the dissenters. The military have been blamed of thousands of killings, deliberate house/village burnings, torture, and menacing people, amid others. From Royal Dutch’s involvement in the murder of Ken-Saro-Wiwa to Chevron emblazoned choppers ferrying Nigerian military that opened fire on protestors, the activities have been dealing with the situation Should U.S. Help Nigeria reform its legal framework to the sustainable environmental conservation? The Crude Oil petroleum from the Niger Delta accounts for more than 85 percent of the whole exports and foreign exchange of Nigeria. On the other hand, the oil commerce in the Niger Delta has been marked with destruction, human rights violations and anxiety to the majority of the people in the oil-rich region. Environmental degradation and destruction caused by oil commerce have amounted to abuses of the rights to health and a healthy ecology. According to Amnesty International, the Niger Delta is one of the world’s most essential wetland and coastal marine habitats. It is also home to 31 million Nigerians. On the other hand, it is also the site of enormous oil reserves, that have been extracted for decades by the administration of Nigeria and by international oil corporations. Crude oil has yielded a projected US 600 billion since the 1960s. In spite of this, the Nigerian citizens who live in the oil producing regions have to drink, cook and wash in contaminated water, and consume fish polluted with oil and other toxins. The scope of pollution and ecological destruction has never been appropriately assessed and/ or regulated. In the Niger Delta, hundreds of spills take place each year. According to UNDP reports, over 6, 800 spills were documented between 1976 and 2001(Omorogbe 67-87). The oil industry is the prevalent and major producer of gross domestic product in Nigeria. Since the discovery and drilling of oil in Nigeria in Nigeria, it is projected that over 10 million barrels have been spilled. There has been progressive environmental deprivation with contamination of waters, devastation of aquaculture, vegetation and agricultural land during petroleum functions with no concerned and effectual attempt by the legislative and oil producers to regulate environmental challenges related to the industry. The sloppy nature of oil operations in Nigeria has made the environment progressively uninhabitable. The commerce has produced grave health and environmental contamination problems for the nation in particular and the portfolio of societies in general. Many people in the Niger Delta have lost essential human rights such like health, access to food and clean water. On the other hand, gas flaring in Nigeria emits massive quantities of greenhouse gases with elevated global warming capabilities. The degree of environmental devastation in Nigeria took place because of the lack of any kind of impact examination at the start of oil operations. It was till 1991 that alertness on the requirement of EIA for key oil undertakings became increasingly ingrained amounting to issuance of Environmental Guidelines and Standards for the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria. Stringent control and enforcement of environmental and oil and gas statutes by the Administration would assist in the fight against environmental destruction in the Niger Delta (Emeseh 24). According to Kalu (244), the petroleum commerce is the biggest and major producer of gross domestic product in Nigeria. For over fifty years, Nigeria persists to face outstanding rises in the equipped operations in her oil and gas exploitation, refining and products marketing. Crude oil was explored in industrial amount in the Niger Delta province of Nigeria in 1956. Oil discovery and exploitation has persisted amounting into environmental degradation because of disregard and restricted concern by the multinational corporations in environmental administration in the province. Both the onshore and offshore operations in the Niger Delta region have yielded enormous wealth and have contributed most to the socio-economic growth of Nigeria. The commerce, with its massive economic and social benefits, has created grave health and environmental contamination difficulties for the nation on the whole and the portfolio societies of the oil corporation above all. It was apparent that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was rarely undertaken before the accreditation of any project. Brutal protests by societies are the most eloquent evidence of the opposition to environmental contamination by the operations of the oil companies. Conflict in the Niger Delta took place in the early 90s because of apprehensions between multinational oil companies, the Nigerian centralized government, and a number of the Niger Delta’s tribal cohorts who felt they were being subjugated, especially minority groups like the Ogoni as well as the Ijaw in the latter 1990s. The predicament over environmental contamination and economic slandering from the oil trade reached a pinnacle in January 1994 when 300, 000 Ogoni were opposed against the oil corporations. What specifically are these companies doing that is contributing to the public health and environmental degradation? The actions of Nigeria’s oil commerce are in three fields, i.e., crude oil searching and exploitation, refining and products transportation and marketing. From 1956 when the first oil was drilled, over 1,481 oil wells have sprung up, yielding from around 159 oil areas. Last year, Nigeria’s crude oil output stood at approximately 2.68 bpd. Next, Nigeria has four refiners, namely, Port Harcourt I and II, Warri, and Kaduna with a consolidated potential of around 450,000 bpd. The refineries came under the organizational and ownership by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in January, 1986. In spite of the safety measures, accidents do take place occasionally in the course of production, refining and circulation of petroleum products. These may amount from accidental leaks, intentional or wayward act of vandalization, disregard in conducting appropriate distinctive discharges, drilling cutting, and deck drainage, amid others. Various ecological challenges have amounted in the Niger Delta area in particular (Kalu et al. 244) The oil-bearing regions of the Niger Delta have the biggest mangroves forests in Africa and the third largest in the universe. The occupants of the region obtain of natural resources from the mangrove forest. Nevertheless, the beginning of oil exploration in the Niger Delta has amounted to deforestation and ecologically, threatening the regeneration natural resources and the environment services in numerous means. The oil-bearing regions have experienced various so many ecological difficulties caused by contamination occurring from oil operations such as drill cutting, drilling mud, amid others. Whereas spill unavoidably couple oil production, in Nigeria they take place with a disturbing regularity and degree since majority of the delivery infrastructure is outmoded and insufficient. In addition, exploitation of pipelines is a continuous challenge, and spills and pipeline leaks are inappropriately monitored and frequently not reported and repaired accordingly. Moreover, oil exploration and production are connected to feebly planned pathways and canals that the oil firms utilize. Whereas is apparent that the ecological impacts of oil production are massive, it is essential to indicate that there are also various ecological difficulties not connected to oil exploration. The current UN growth documentation on the Niger Delta established specified environmental challenges that are not accredited to the oil commerce operations, but rather as a consequent of the natural territory and hydrology of the Niger Delta. The Niger Delta region is a susceptible and frail ecology. Despite its extensive resource bequest and its massive potential for socio-economic development and contributions to the general growth of Nigeria, the oil-bearing regions inside the Niger Delta remain under the risk of swiftly deteriorating economic and ecological situations as well as social strains (Omorogbe 45-78). Does the U.S. has any interest in Nigeria? Over the past two decades and a half, amidst an expanding predicament in the Middle East and the thinning petroleum markets, the United States has silently institutionalized a West-African based oil supply plan. Nigeria, presently, supplying 10-12 percent of the United States imports, serves as the basis of this Gulf of Guinea plan. However, since the end of 2005, the on-off shore oilfields of the Niger Delta, the largest source of Nigerian oil and gas, have importantly become intractable. Political volatility and violent conflict have intensified to the point that some of the oil and oil-service firms working there, including Chevron, Exxon-Mobil, Shell and Julius Berger, express their fears about the possibility of their social license speedily grinding down. In the year 2003 through 2004, armed rebels and invasions on oil systems cut national oil production by 40 percent. The increasing political predicament in the Delta threatens United States energy security, the security of Nigeria’s fledgling democracy, and certainly, the whole West African area as a source of dependable energy (Taillant & Picolotti 87-99). After the September 11, 2001 attacks, giving energy security and terrorist issues, the United States drastically reviewed its tactical vision for the West African region. The plan shifted chiefly from training for peacekeeping operations in African to training for counter terrorist and energy security. Nigeria has been a specified aim for of this move in energy security policy, not just a tactical ally in the area but also as a front line nation in the Global War on Terrorism. This is a form of a geopolitical plan whose assumptions amount to explaining all conflicts (Paul et al. 1-2). What laws does Nigeria already have to deal with the problem? The Petroleum Act of 1969 is the central governing that controls oil and gas in Nigeria. Its chief provisos pertain to oil; however, gas is legislated beside oil as the explanation of petroleum in the Act, integrates natural gas. The gas particular provisos pertain to a pricing system for gas and the government’s right to gas free of cost at flare. Its ecological conservation provisos are under the collective authorities give to the minister to make controls. On the other hand, the Associated Gas Reinjection Act 1979 imposes a compulsory need on all oil-producing corporations to submit comprehensive schemes and strategies for either the implementation of schemes pertaining to the re-injection of all produced associated gas. It also stipulates 31 December 1984 as the end date for the oil firms to end gas flaring. The provisos for this Act have been expanded by numerous regulations, which have either unmitigated the decrease or imposed new fines. Nevertheless, the Act has not been successful in bringing gas flaring in Nigeria to a stop. Conversely, the environmental impact Ac makes its compulsory for development programmes with potential ecological effect to undergo an environmental effect examination before their beginning (Omorogbe 64-77). As things stand, the Petroleum Act, which is the standard petroleum legislation in Nigeria, has stayed immensely inert since its ratification in 1969. Further germane legislation and adjustments in this regard is littered over numerous Government Gazettes and has become outmoded and scarce in achieving the demands of the 21st century petroleum activities in a developing nation. Should the U.S. assist Nigeria fighting militia in Niger Delta? In 2005, the skyrocketing troubles in the Niger Delta exerted American and Nigerian officials to surpass their misgivings about the downside dangers related to intensifying their security cooperation. After a series of advices with the UK and other European partners, the GGEESS strategy for a joint working cohort on security in the Niger Delta developed. The creation of the GGEESS working groups on the Delta is an extensive discourse of energy security. For instance, Bush met with Obasanjo in Washington and the agenda of that meet up was rebellion and criminality concerns. Securing Nigerian oil exports impelled the United States to hire the United Kingdom and European Union witness nations to join Nigeria at the August 2006 GGESS convention in Abuja. Today, the United States military is guarding the Gulf, and training Nigerian security forces in the Delta with the assistance of American advisors. In the Niger Delta, nevertheless, militarization cannot assure steadiness of flow of oil. In fact, the expanded presence of United States forces in the, alongside with the far ranging view within Nigeria of hold by the Unites States could ignite not just a strong anti-American petro-nationalism. On the other hand, a failure on the of American policymakers to dynamically endorse both Nigeria’s democratic forces and the assemblies oversight of the presidency not just pressure American energy security, but dangers devastating what is evidently one of the most essential elections since the end of the Biafran Civil War (Paul et al. 1-22). Over the next one or two decades, a number of converging phenomenon in the universal segment expected to have key effects on oil markets and geopolitics, including fast expanding global demand for oil, particularly by China and India as well as the United States. In the short and standard term, these and other volatility, such like assertive petro-nationalism in Iran and Venezuela and political hostilities in the Andean and Caspian oil regions, pose great danger to the energy security in the U.S. Oil from the Gulf of Guinea is particularly appealing for American customers since it has a transport advantage to oil workstations upon the east coast of the United States and low sulfur, lightweight quantity. Nigeria is the energy-exporting monster and most appealing of the Oil Triangle. Presently, its apparent oil reserves are projected at 140 billion barrels, however, new offshore explorations will, increase reserves considerably. Most of this oil comes from onshore areas in the Niger Delta, nevertheless offshore explorations like the Bonga areas are fast transforming in this picture. The expanding insecurity of the United States oil supplies mirrors what s known as the economization of security. The United States seems to have been entrapped between the need to secure the supply of oil and to shun offending Nigerian nationalist sensibilities. Pressure is on the raise, indicating exactly the opposite. Certainly, the integration of social and political order in the Niger Delta has become so grave that some Nigerian nationals are wondering whether they should invite the United States into the trouble Delta (Paul et al 1-22). Conclusion According to Omorogbe (56-78), the NESREA Act bestows the agency with an extensive scope of powers for the conservation and growth of the Nigerian ecology. Nevertheless, the powers are not absolute, as the operations and authority of NESREA do not enlarge to the oil and gas segment of the Nigerian economy. The impact of these provisos was to expunge all ecological concerns coming from the discovery and output of petroleum and natural gas from the power of NASREA and put them under the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR). By revoking the FEPA Act and restricting the sovereignty of NESREA in respect to the oil and gas commerce, it appears that the ecological perspective for maintainable growth was weakened and was somewhat retrogressive, therefore challenging the recent and exhaustive viewpoint of the legislations. On the other hand, it would seem that there is there is an innate conflict of interest in the DPR, between its responsibilities as component of oil and gas segment ministries. The basic challenge facing the DPR is how to interpret the recommendable provisos if the EIA Act into a productive apparatus for managing the atmosphere. The setbacks are critical since Nigeria, like most growing nations, has first-class legislation on numerous issues, which however suffers breakdown at the execution phase. The standard ingrained in the Act, of positive incorporation of growth system and ecological concerns to distribute ecological friendly schemes is practical in the violation. The major violators in this implement are numerous of government, centralized, state and local that too frequently approve projects. The context of ecological development contact has affected on the strengthening of project level EIA which stresses practical and integrative approach of ecological, social and economic aspects. This is founded on the maxim that humanity is at the centre of issues for maintainable development. The achievement of any development is human welfare, which entitles a healthy life in accord with nature. In order to accomplish maintainable growth, ecological protection should compromise an essential component of the growth process and should in tandem with it. The contributions of the oil trade in Nigeria to ecological contamination and destruction are rather considerable and potentially treacherous to human health via ecological pollution. The amounting impact of the baggage of oil commerce in Nigeria is due to weak environmental regulations. The requirement to subject the businesses to EIA or ecological supervision or review needn’t be over stressed. There is call for drawing focuses of industrialists and strategy implementers on the need to stringent shows and enforces regulations of EIA in Nigeria. Apparently, Nigeria and United States have a convergent security interests that makes it wholly predictable that security collaboration is moving toward in the Niger Delta region. As a sovereign state, nevertheless, Nigeria has the duty to secure its borders, natural resources, and if necessary, to enter into pacts to accomplish these goals (Paul et al. 1-22). Work Cited Emeseh, Enogbo. “Limitations of Law in Promoting Synergy between Environment and Development Policies in Developing Countries: A Case Study of the Petroleum Industry in Nigeria.” Journal of Sustainable society (2006) 24. Print. Kalu, Victoria E.& Ngozi F. Steward. “Nigeria Niger Delta Crises and Resolution of Oil and Gas Related Disputes: Need for a Paradigm Shift” (2000) 24 J. Energy, Nat’l Res, & Envtl. 244. Print. Kiss, Alexandre. Public Lectures on International Environment Law. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print. Omorogbe, Yinka. Alternative Regulation and Government Reform in Resource Rich Developing Countries of Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Paul, Lubeck., Michael, Watts & Lipschutz, Ronnie. Convergent Interests: U.S. Energy Security and the Security of Nigerian Democracy. International Policy Report. 2007:1-2. Print. Taillant, Jorge. D., & Picolotti, Romania. Linking Human Rights and the Environment. New York: Basic Books, 2011. Print. Read More