Going by decades of oil exploration, going back at least as far as the tragic Exxon Valdez oil spill—oil and gas companies have gotten a very bad reputation; according to Heather Uboh, an energy professional from Nigeria, this bad reputation has an avoidable foundation. Oil and gas companies really do make spectacular blunders that do untold environmental and ecological damage. Having said that, it is important to note that, in many instances,there are lots of policies and reforms that could prevent these spills and desasters from happening.
A Recent Episode from Nigeria
To illustrate and buttress her point, Heather Uboh points out a recent incident in Nigeria. A
Daily Times article summarizes the story: “Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the National Oil Spill Response and Emergency Agency, (NOSREA), have ordered Shell to pay N1.84 trillion, as fines and compensation for the 2011 Bonga oil spill incident,” the article states.
Following the article, “The Director General of NIMASA, Mr. Patrick Akpobolokemi said at the public hearing [organized] by the House of Representatives Committee on Environment, that NIMASA calculated a total of $6.5 billion, about N1.04 trillion, as compensation to be paid to the communities affected by the spill.”
In the same manner, the Director General of NOSREA, Peter Ibado, says that the agency fined Shell in excess of $5 billion over the unfortunate incident—which comes out to be about N800 billion.
Standards of Accountability
According to Heather, in Nigeria, when disasters and catastrophes happen, the right people are held accountable in a way—but not alot is done to prevent these incidents from happening all over again.
“If a spill happened here in Nigeria like the BP spill, someone would simply get fired and it would be covered up,” Said Heather . “The government needs to implement stricter policies to control drilling to help make it safer. Profit should not drive drilling; it should be for the love and passion for the business. If drilling is profit driven, accidents will happen because oversights are made.”
A Major Exporter of Crude Oil
For Nigeria to improve its standards of safety while shipping oil is of the essence, Uboh continues, catigorically because Nigeria is such a major oil producer. In fact, a recent
Business Day article highlights another reality about the Nigerian oil industry—that it provides products for countless nations across the region, including
a heavy supply of oil that goes directly to India.
Business Day reports that India’s import of Nigerian crude oil and gas is projected to grow by at least 26 percent in 2014. This means that the total amount of imported oil and gas will reach some 116.8 million barrels. Says the article: “According to 2013 World Oil Outlook, a report released by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), India’s demand for crude oil is to grow by 3 percent from 3.8 million barrels per day in 2013 to 3.9 million barrels per day in 2014, with Nigeria accounting for 8.2 percent of India’s import in 2014, this is equivalent to 0.32 mbpd or 116.8 million barrels for the year under review.”
Exporting to India
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s quarterly petroleum data shows that in the first three quarters of 2013, India has the top spot among countries that import their crude oil from Nigeria. In fact, around 13 percent of all crude oil produced in Nigeria goes to India.
“We expect that when the last quarter report for 2013 is released, India’s import figure should be as high as 92.49 million barrels,” the article notes. “This implies that India import from Nigeria will increase by 26 percent to 116.8 million barrels by 2014, all other factors remaining constant. BRIU calculations show that Nigeria’s share of India import will increase from 8 percent in 2014 and 2015 to 10 percent in 2016.”
Further Disasters Looming?
Heather emphasises what all of this means for the nations’ standards of oil safety. “Oil spills have happened in Nigeria before, as recently as a couple years ago, and they will happen again,” she says. “We know this is true because, in past oil spills, comparatively little has been done to punish the oil companies responsible. Fines are administered, but they are just slaps on the wrist.”
Uboh says that further actions should be taken, precisely because of how much oil transportation Nigeria really does. “As these reports show, Nigerian oil companies move many barrels each day—and that is just to India! Because of this, and because of the relatively lax safety standards, it is not hard to envision another big spill happening. What makes this inexcusable is that there are measures that could be taken to prevent this from happening.”
As for what kind of measures, Uboh says the options are many. “The starting place is to hold offenders to some more rigorous standard of accountability. From there, these companies would surely begin working to develop some protocols to ensure their shipments reach their destinations with minimal risk of spillage and of major environmental damage,” Heather concludes.
Meanwhile, indian Corporations are looking into producing their own oil and USA tends to stop importing oil from Nigeria in 7years time.
VS 
