Oil Spillage and Pollution in Nigeria: Organizational Management and Institutional Framework

Since the discovery of oil in Nigeria in the Niger Delta in the1950s and its commercialization in 1958, oil exploration and exploitation has been on going in Nigeria. The region has huge oil and gas reserves, and ranks the sixth world’s largest exporter of crude oil and ranked as the third world’s largest producer of palm oil after Malaysia and Indonesia. Oil from the Niger Delta region accounts for more than 90% of Nigeria’s exports and about 80% of the government’s revenue, from as far back as December 1981. In these present times the overall contribution of the oil sector to the national economy grew from 84% in 2000 and 95% in 2002 to about 96.7% in 2003. As of 2006, there where eleven (11) oil companies operating one hundred and fifty- nine (159) oil fields and one thousand four hundred and eighty-one (1,481) wells in the Niger Delta in Nigeria (The Guardian 2006). Human activities and those of oil exploration and exploitation raise a number of issues such as depletion of biodiversity, coastal and riverbank erosion, flooding, oil spillage, gas flaring, noise pollution, sewage and wastewater pollution, land degradation and soil fertility loss and deforestation, which are all major environmental issues. The Nigerian government has a lot of laws and legislations with the sole purpose of safeguarding the environment with regards to oil pollution. The legislations are numerous and needs to be reviewed, some of these legislations are found scattered in Acts that are not pertaining to the environment, with no evident method of application, enforcement, monitoring or ensuring compliance of these legislations. This paper seeks to highlight some of the existing laws applicable to oil pollution in Nigeria, discussing the current legislations and system suggesting areas where improvement is essential. Keywords: Niger Delta, Government, Laws, Exploration, Exploitation