Prof. Olawuyi
Damilola Olawuyi is a Professor of Law and Director, Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute), Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. He is also Vice-Chair, International Law Association. In this interview with KINGSLEY JEREMIAH, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria raised concerns about the continuous environmental challenges resulting from oil exploration in the Niger Delta region and proposes better ways of resolving them.
What is your assessment of the environmental concerns in the Niger Delta region?
ENVIRONMENTAL problems in the Niger Delta are undoubtedly justice concerns. Environmental justice is achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards, and equal access to decision-making processes.
“What would you do if someone dumped nine Olympic swimming pools of oil into your community?”
This is the question that is splayed across Amnesty International’s webpage on the Niger Delta oil spills. As it turns out, since 2011, Shell alone has reported 1,010 spills, with 110,535 barrels or 17.5 million litres dumped into water bodies in the Niger Delta a conservative number, as the Nigerian government and other experts have estimated it to be even more. As this data is from 2018, the numbers do not consider the spills that have occurred since then or before then, including the infamous Ogoniland spills.
Ironically, on Earth Day this year, April 22, the tabloids carried stories of the finalisation of the Joint Investigative report of the Shell-owned Okordia-Rumuekpe 14-inch trunk line which had spilled 213 barrels- over 33, 000 liters- of crude oil on April 7 into the Ikarama community. According to the report, the spill had polluted 1.34 hectares of land, at least two footb
“What would you do if someone dumped nine Olympic swimming pools of oil into your community?”
This is the question that is splayed across Amnesty International’s webpage on the Niger Delta oil spills. As it turns out, since 2011, Shell alone has reported 1,010 spills, with 110,535 barrels or 17.5 million litres dumped into water bodies in the Niger Delta a conservative number, as the Nigerian government and other experts have estimated it to be even more. As this data is from 2018, the numbers do not consider the spills that have occurred since then or before then, including the infamous Ogoniland spills.
Ironically, on Earth Day this year, April 22, the tabloids carried stories of the finalisation of the Joint Investigative report of the Shell-owned Okordia-Rumuekpe 14-inch trunk line which had spilled 213 barrels- over 33, 000 liters- of crude oil on April 7 into the Ikarama community. According to the report, the spill had polluted 1.34 hectares of land, at least two footb
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USA-based graduate of Electrical Engineering from the University of Lagos, and a global capital sales manager for a leading international oil and gas service company in Houston, USA, Abayomi Jewesimi, has said that the oil and gas industry in Nigeria struggles to meet the challenges of providing environmental protection.
Jewesimi, in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune on the best practices in the nation’s oil and gas sector, noted that while the exploitation of oil and gas reserves had not been without some ecological side effects including oil spills, and air and water pollution, drilling fluids and drill cuttings remained the largest waste streams generated in global drilling operations and called on the Nigerian regulators of the industry to “ensure minimal damage is done to the environment and protect marine life offshore as these protections are not limited to Nigeria; most oil and gas countries have similar legislation and regulations to protect the environment.