Niger Delta Watch

So, what of the future of Nigeria and the Niger Delta? Will it be an all-out battle for oil revenues marred with terrorist attacks on oil producers and with resistance to change from the Nigerian government? Or will there be a more equitable solution to the social and environmental catastrophe that has developed in Nigeria?

While Nigeria's political scene is a melange of regional and ethnic allegiances that at times represents a Gordian Knot of political malfeasance, there certainly are some aspects of the government that seek resolution to the Niger Delta problem.

In the coming weeks and months, this space will be devoted to increasing awareness not just of the problems in Nigeria, but of the resolution of these problems in the most environmentally and socially responsible way possible. And there are a multitude of options, issues, and angles with which to approach the situation.

In fact, despite constant stories in the news about on-going abductions and facility take-overs by MEND and similar groups, a group called the Council for Renewable Energy in Nigeria (CREN) has recently launched what they call Nigeria's Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP). According to the plan, CREN envisions the installation of close to 3,000 Megawatts of renewable energy production -- almost equal to the entire energy production capacity today. In an area as fertile as the Niger Delta and elsewhere, it is plain to see how energy from a variety of renewable sources can be developed to the benefit of the local populations. The REMP looks at wind, photovoltaic, solar thermal, small-scale hydro, and biomass power to achieve the renewable output goal by the year 2025. Or, going by the U.S. EIA's estimate of Nigeria's oil reserves, just about when their "cash crop" runs out. Pretty convenient.

As the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) contemplates investment in renewable fuels and moves to combine Nigerian petroleum with Brazilian ethanol; it should not be lost on the people of Nigeria, nor the government, nor the energy sector; that an estimated 500,000 jobs would be created by a Nigerian renewable energy economy.

There is much work to be done, so stay tuned to this space for a regular stream of updates on these sustainable solutions that have such a profound power to turn the situation from the current spiraling violence and chaos to a modern, fair, and environmentally-sound economy for the future of Nigeria.

As we sit in our heated homes and live in our television and multimedia worlds where every politician in Washington D.C. decries the terrorist movement of Al Qaeda, we turn a blind eye to the deleterious effects of our consumption of petroleum and all of its byproducts. In Nigeria, Western oil corporations have developed such an awful reputation with the local people as to be the source of repeated "terrorist"-style attacks and kidnappings.

One main seat of conflict is the aforementioned Niger Delta. In a region coincidentally called the Oil Rivers due to its once-prolific production of palm oil, multinational oil companies drill oil well-after-oil well in search of the precious petroleum. While the region accounts for only 7.5% of Nigeria's total land mass, it generates close to 75% of the country's total export revenues due to the 2 million barrels per day of oil that is extracted.

The people of the Niger Delta, some 20 million of them, have lived in the region for countless generations, subsisting primarily on an agrarian culture of fishing and farming the lush delta region. Despite this relatively basic lifestyle, they have endured consistent stress from the oil industry.

In addition to the obtrusive presence of drilling rigs and the steady buzz of tanker ships and workers going to and from the platforms, the oil industry is a massive polluter in the area, and without enforcement of environmental laws nor strict oversight of the industry, the pollution goes on despite its clear harm to the local people. Add to this the insult upon injury of the fact that the Nigerian government has been reluctant, putting it mildly, to share the revenues of the oil production from the region with the local population, and you have a toxic stew guaranteed to engender a less-than-healthy relationship. In fact, the destitution in the area combined with the fact that they are literally sitting on the world's most valuable substance has resulted in a deadly tinder-box that is ready to combust at an moment -- much like the pipelines that run through Lagos.

It is little wonder that people in the region, an eclectic mix of some 40 ethnic groups speaking around 250 languages, have taken matters into their own hands. In the last decade, groups have formed to bring the situation to light both in Nigeria and around the world. Within the last few years one such group has vaulted into public eye, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, or MEND.

MEND's tactics have a distinctive terrorist bent, including the sensational swarming oil production facilities with gunmen, the abduction of multinational oil workers, and the strategic targeting of certain facilities to interrupt the flow of oil. While these tactics are designed to play on the terrorism mentality that we have become accustomed to in the Western society, the simple fact of the matter is that the people have truly suffered, and as is the case with most types of "economic colonialism," the situation is largely avoidable.

Putting aside this inflammatory situation for a minute, one cannot help but wonder what is around the corner as the world enters a new phase of oil-flavored geopolitics. Like everywhere in the world, Nigeria's oil reserves are neither permanent nor renewable resources. Depending on which source you read, the proven reserves of Nigeria's oil wealth is either 16 or 17 billion barrels or 35.3 billion barrels. While that sounds like an incredible amount of oil, one has to simply crunch some basic numbers to realize that this is an impermanent situation.

At the current rate of extraction (2.2 million barrels per day), one can calculate the amount of time Nigeria's oil producers have to do their thing. At the highest estimate of oil reserves (35.3 billion barrels) divided by the 2.2 million barrels per day, one can determine quite easily that there is only around 16,000 days of oil production remaining at that production rate, or approximately 44 years' worth -- and, again, that is without figuring into the mix the greatly increasing demand for the fuel worldwide or the economics of the oil economy. Using the United States Energy Information Administration's significantly lower estimate of 16 billion barrels of oil, we find that Nigeria's oil supply shrinks to under 20 years' worth.

While the government of Nigeria and the multinational oil corporations have made the situation for the people of Nigeria and the Niger Delta untenable and even deadly, the fact of the matter is that without proper foresight Nigeria's whole economy will completely collapse without oil revenue.

Imagine, if you will, living in a densely populated slum in the capital city of a country with the 10th-largest supply of oil of any country in the world -- and having a pipeline of "black gold" run through your neighborhood. Then imagine crooked oil companies puncturing the line to illegally siphon the oil into a truck for the black market, and then leaving the pipeline to leak. Stuck in an impoverished situation and with a window of opportunity to collect the valuable petroleum, hundreds of people crowd around the hole while filling containers of all sizes with hopes of either selling the fuel or using it themselves to cook food. It is a chaotic scene at best, and that is before there is an accidental spark or someone lights a cigarette and the entire scene goes up in a huge ball of flame. Hundreds of men, women, and children are incinerated instantaneously in the inferno, along with homes and shacks in the immediate vicinity.

The sad truth is that not only has this exact circumstance happened in Nigeria, but it happens there with unfortunate regularity. According to the BBC, at least 1,750 people have lost their lives in similar pipeline explosions in the past 10 years. Over 250 people were burned alive -- most beyond recognition -- in Lagos, Nigeria in December 2006, the latest of this series of grim "accidents."

Nigeria, with an estimated reserve of between 16 and 35 billion barrels of petroleum in the ground, receives almost 98% of its export revenue from oil. Flush with oil and needing the technology of the modern oil industry to harvest the valuable resource, it is little wonder that the Nigerian government has long considered multinational oil corporations to be their friends and partners. Since discovering oil in the 1950s in the southern region of Nigeria called the Niger Delta, Royal Dutch Shell Petroleum -- known to those of us in the "Western World" as simply Shell -- has been complicit with corrupt regime after regime in doing what they do best, making gobs money from the harvesting and sale of fossil fuels.

Generations of Nigerian people have been relegated to abject poverty as the Nigerian government and Shell Corporation executives have been raking in billions upon billions of dollars. So who is it, you may ask, who sponsors this negligence and corrupt behavior? The unfortunate answer is: US. The United States imports over 1 million of barrels of oil each and every day of the year from Nigeria. One million barrels per day.

Video of the scene





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At least 200 people were killed outside Lagos, Nigeria, in a massive explosion and fire that ignited as crowds carried away buckets of refined fuel from a tapped fuel pipeline, the Nigerian Red Cross said.

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"People try to siphon fuel from a pipeline, and after that, maybe an hour, a couple hours after that -- someone lights a cigarette or a motorcycle engine backfires, and an explosion appears," CNN's Jeff Koinange explained.

Despite the country's oil riches, much of Nigeria's population suffers from fuel shortages. People often tap into pipelines that cross their lands, seeking fuel for cooking or resale on the black market.

In September 2004, an oil pipeline exploded near Lagos, as thieves tried to siphon oil from it. Up to 50 people perished in the flames.

A 1998 pipeline blast killed more than 1,000 in southern Nigeria.

Nigeria is the fourth largest exporter of oil to the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration.

One would think that there has to be a better way. The government needs to give people jobs so they don't have to smuggle oil and potentially lose their lives in the process. It is the oil companies' responsibility to give people jobs or else make absolutely sure that the dividends they give to the Nigerian government from their oil and gas contracts GETS TO THE PEOPLE. Otherwise, BOTH are to blame for dereliction of responsibility to the people of Nigeria and the Niger Delta.

Labels: Lagos, Niger Delta, Nigeria, Pipeline Explosion

Dec 23

(AP) -- A car bomb exploded outside a state government office in Nigeria's southern oil hub Saturday, soon after the military reported an overnight bombing of a water pipeline leading into a refinery.

The blast at the office building in Port Harcourt was the first targeting of a government installation by a militant group that has frequently kidnapped foreign oil workers and occupied pumping stations run by multinational companies.

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Going off at midday, the car bomb split the vehicle in two and demolished part of a fence surrounding a building that houses the office of the Rivers State governor and other government offices. Deputy Governor Gabriel Tony, who was inside at the time, said no one was injured.

The explosion came less than an hour after one of the region's militant groups, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that it had placed two car bombs in the region and would detonate them "shortly."

The group, known as MEND, claimed responsibility for the Port Harcourt bombing in a later e-mail.

The e-mail, from an address used by MEND, said state governors in the Niger delta and other political figures "have acted against the interest of the people of the Niger delta, sabotaging all efforts at resource control for selfish reasons."

"We will henceforth carry out attacks against these traitors in addition to attacks against oil installations," it said.

Labels: MEND, Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Dec 19

(Reuters) Ship brokers in the U.S. Northeast keep getting dubious requests for vessels to carry Nigerian crude even as Nigeria attempts to crack down on illegal oil exports, ship brokers say.

In the past two weeks, several ship brokers in New York and Connecticut received chartering inquiries from an unknown Montreal-based oil agent calling itself Adams Financial Services International for a Very Large Crude Carrier to load Nigerian crude oil at Port Harcourt.

But the inquiry failed to garner any interest because Adams Financial has no track record in the shipping industry and, apparently, no line of credit either.

Oil smuggling continues to plague OPEC-member Nigeria despite a government crackdown one year ago, as the profits from smuggled shipments keep luring dealers.

Industry experts estimate that about 50,000 to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil are smuggled out of Nigeria, with alleged help from senior officials in the local oil industry, the government and military.

In a recent case, the agent representing an oil supplier in Nigeria, Mulics Petroleum and Gas, sought a tanker to load 4 million barrels of Bonny Light crude for coastal African voyages between Nigeria and Togo, ship brokers said.

The agent said that Mulics is one of the few oil marketing firms representing Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC).

However, Aminu Baba-Kusa, head of crude oil marketing for NNPC, said he had never heard of Mulics and that the offer was probably not genuine when contacted by Reuters last week.

Labels: Adams Financial Services International, Aminu Baba-Kusa, Connecticut, Mulics Petroleum and Gas, New York, Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corp, Oil Smuggling, Port Harcourt, Togo

Dec 21

(Reuters) The largest oil operator in Nigeria, Royal Dutch Shell, evacuated expatriate staff dependants from the Niger Delta on Thursday after militants planted a car bomb in a residential compound, the company said.

The withdrawal began hours after armed militants stormed an oil facility operated by France's Total in the delta's Rivers state, killing three police officers.

Shell's pullout involves about 400 foreign family members from residential compounds in Port Harcourt, Warri and Bonny Island.

Labels: Bonny Island, France, Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Royal Dutch Shell, TotalSA, Warri

Dec 21

(AP) Before dawn Thursday, about a dozen gunmen attacked a Total SA pumping station, killing three security guards. The company shut the 40,000-barrel-a-day facility to ``ensure the total protection of the site,'' spokesman Paul Floren said by phone from Paris.

Gunmen later occupied a facility owned by Eni SpA. In a statement on its Web site, Eni said no injuries or damages were reported at the Tebidaba oil-pumping station, which shut down production. Eighteen local workers were in the facility when the attack occurred.

Dec 18

(Reuters) Two car bombs exploded at oil company compounds in Nigeria's oil capital Port Harcourt on Monday damaging cars but causing no casualties, authorities said.

The blasts occurred in the car park of a residential compound of Royal Dutch Shell, while the other was on a perimeter wall of a compound of Italian oil company Agip.

There was no immediate impact on oil production.

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(MEND) said in an email to the media adding that a third planned bombing was canceled to avoid high civilian casualties.

Labels: Agip, Eni, MEND, Port Harcourt, Royal Dutch Shell, TotalSA