Multinational Oil Companies and the Human Rights Dilemmas - Term Paper Example

Nigerian oil is produced by Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Chevron Texaco and Agip. Shell is the largest oil producer in the Opec member nation. Opec, in turn, holds about two-thirds of the world's oil reserves. These companies have made huge profits out of Nigeria 's oil at a cost of human exploitation and air pollution. Activists, like the late Ken Saro Wiwa, have been compelled to speak out against such transgression. In 1990 Ken Saro Wiwa founded the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People "to protest against the devastation of their environment by Shell.

"  Oil exports account for 98.5% of Nigeria’s total exports. Oil companies have been operating in Nigeria for over six decades. Shell companies in Nigeria struck oil in 1956, and have the largest network of land-based assets in Nigeria, employing nearly 6,000 people directly, owning some 90 flow stations, and running a network of pipelines through the Niger Delta. Of the other companies, Chevron-Texaco, Total and ENI (Agip) have some exposure to the onshore Delta itself, while Exxon-Mobil’s operations are primarily offshore (Amnesty International,)  Nigerian law has historically barred foreign firms from owning 100 percent of oil enterprises and other businesses the government deemed important to national security.

However, President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's leader since 1999, has introduced reforms to privatize the government-owned and -subsidized oil operations, or parastatals, partly in an attempt to attract more capital investment and foreign business partners. Otherwise, nearly all of Nigeria's oil production and development projects are owned by joint venture operations between the government-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and multinational corporations. The biggest joint venture operation, the Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd.

, accounts for more than half of Nigeria's daily oil production and reserves. The massive operation is partly owned by the NNPC, which controls a 55 percent stake and the Netherlands-based Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies, with a 30 percent interest. Elf Petroleum, a subsidiary of the Paris-based TotalFinaElf, owns 10 percent, while Agip, a subsidiary of Italian energy giant Eni, holds a 5 percent stake.