Investigation of the Impact of Gas Quality on Noise a Case Study of Gbaramatu Kingdom
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVES
- to identify and analyze the impact of gas quality on noise on Gbaramatu kingdom in Warri, Delta state,
- to examine the relationships between the environmental, political, and impact of gas quality on noise in Gbaramatu kingdom, and how they have shaped and prolonged the suffering of the inhabitants of the region
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this section, I discuss the historical overview of oil exploration and exploitation in Gbaramatu kingdom. Secondly, I present my theoretical framework. Next, I address the Nigerian government and the multinational companies in Gbaramatu kingdom to explain the role of the government in the oil sector and their alliance with the multinational oil companies operating in the region. Next, I address the environmental and political climate of the Niger Delta Region that contribution to various documented negative impacts. Finally, I address the negative noise implication in the region, with emphasis on documented impacts on youth and the economy.
AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF OIL EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION IN NIGERIA
Steyn (2009,5) identifies that oil exploration in Nigeria officially started in 1903 when Nigeria Properties (Limited) and Nigeria and West African Development Syndicate (Limited) commenced exploration for bitumen, coal, and oil. Their two concessions covered a territory of 400 m² in the Agabu-Mulekangbo area in the Lekki Lagoon region of Southern Nigeria. Steyn (2009) explains that in 1905 the Nigeria Bitumen Corporation was founded to acquire and operate the exploration concessions of Nigeria Properties and Nigeria and West African Development Syndicate. Nigeria Bitumen Corporation discontinued their operation in Nigeria during the first World War, but the exploration of crude oil in Nigeria was renewed again by the establishment of Shell/D’ Arcy Petroleum Development of Nigeria in 1937 which is an affiliate of mineral oil companies, Shell Petroleum Company and British Petroleum Company (Atsegbua 1999).
Atsegbua (1999,57) explains that the British colonial government gave Shell-BP an oil exploration license which covers the whole of Nigeria’s landmass around (375,000 square miles). By 1956, Shell-BP made Nigeria’s first commercial discovery at Oloibiri in Bayelsa State and later made several discoveries in other parts of the Niger Delta (Watts 2011,52). Shell-BP reduced its area of coverage in 1957 to 40,000sq miles of oil prospecting license because of the geological and geophysical investigations which favored Niger Delta as the region with oil yielding structures (Atsegbua 1999).
Atsegbua (1999,58) acknowledges that section 6(1) (a) of the Mineral Oil Ordinance of 1914, which did not allow non-British companies to participate in oil exploration or given exploration license, was abolished in 1958. This dissolution canceled the monopoly of exploration rights given to Shell-BP in 1938 and opened the door for some international oil companies to take up oil prospecting license concessions voluntarily relinquished by Shell-BP. The Nigerian Gulf Oil Company, a subsidiary of Gulf Oil Corporation of America, was licensed to explore for petroleum in 1961 along with other international oil companies, such as Mobile Oil, Texaco, Occidental, Agip the Italian state-owned oil company, and French- owned Safrap, which later became Elf (Atsegbua 1999, 58).
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY AND METHODS
RESEARCH DESIGN
The analysis contained in this research is based on the review of relevant literature on the subject matter. To this end, five broad categories emerged from the literature on the impact of gas quality on noise in Gbaramatu kingdom. These categories included, cultural, community, economy, family, and the youth impacts. However, two of these categories namely, the impact on youth and the economy were most prominent in the reviewed literature. Therefore, for this research, the social impact of gas quality on the local economy and the youth is explored. I used Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine these impacts, by critically analyzing and interpreting the text and the language used to address these impacts in the documents. The overall aim of critical discourse analysis is to link linguistic analysis to social analysis (Janks 1997).
CHAPTER FOUR
FINDINGS
In this chapter, I present my findings from the Critical Discourse Analysis I carried out on documents concerning the impact of gas quality on noise on the Niger Delta region. The findings center on the twin focus of this study: the impact on the youth and the economy. With regards to the youth, the findings include information on the rise of militancy, sabotage, oil theft and criminal gangs in the region. A section is also dedicated to highlight the conduct of the youth in Ogoni in relation to oil extraction in their area. With regards to the economy, the impact includes loss of personal income and the rising cost of living. The chapter also describes the claims and counter claims made by Shell, Amnesty International, and the media with regards to the impacts of gas quality in Gbaramatu kingdom. Therefore the findings is grouped into two parts, the first part captured the impact of the oil extraction and the second part focused on the interventions undertaken by Shell and the government.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
IMPACTS ON YOUTH
From the findings, Shell, through their sustainability reports tend to characterize the youth of the region as people engaged in criminality by describing them variously as oil thieves and millitants. The reports however failed to acknowledge the causative factors such as the many years of neglect and deprivation from the region’s resources.
According to Oluwaniyi (2010) the youth of Niger Delta became militants after years of peaceful protest and neglect, most of them resorted to violence to get the attention of international community. Language is often used as a medium of domination and social force and serves to legitimize the association of organized force (Huckin 1997), therefore Shell and
the Nigerian government labelled the youth of Niger Delta militants and oil thieves to legitimize the deployment of Nigerian military in the region. An example was the violent crack down of protesters in Umuechem community in Gbaramatu kingdom where armed police men attacked the protesting youth.
According to a subsequent judicial enquiry, the villagers had not in fact attacked Shell installations, but conducted a peaceful protest demanding that the oil company compensate them for damage caused by pollution from oil spills. Over the course of the next two days, the Mobile Police attacked the village, “like an invading army that had vowed to take the last drop of the enemy’s blood”, the inquiry found. The Mobile Police, using guns and grenades, killed 80 people, throwing many corpses into a nearby river, the survivors testified (Amnesty International 2017,19)
In 2009, Shell sustainability reports claimed that militancy, sabotage, and organized oil theft are the major challenges confronting oil production in Gbaramatu kingdom. The Shell sustainability report 2009 to 2018 blamed 80 to 90 percent of the oil spill and environmental damage in the Niger Delta on sabotage and oil theft. An Amnesty International report from 2009 to 2019 argued with Shell’s claims due to the results of their investigation. Amnesty investigation revealed that Shell was covering up the original cause of the spills, which were mainly pipeline leakages due to corrosion, operational hazards due to lack of maintenance of equipment and technical default. Although Amnesty International and THISDAY Newspaper acknowledged that oil theft, pipeline vandalization, sabotage and illegal refining of oil was a major issue in the Niger Delta, they noted that they do not cause as much environmental damage as Shell attributed to them. THISDAY Newspaper reported that Shell was trying to avert the oil spill cleanup responsibility and compensation to Gbaramatu kingdom by shifting the blame to oil thieves and sabotage.
Shell and the Nigerian government are business partners, operating the highly profitable Nigerian oil fields as joint venture. According to Brain Anderson chairperson of Shell Nigeria 1994 to 1997 said that ‘‘the government and the oil industry are inextricably entangled’’ this is the reason the Nigerian government are more interested in oil production increase than the increase in the living standard of the Niger Delta people. (Amnesty International 2017). The statement confirms that Nigerian government will suppress any form of resistance or protest from the community that will prevent oil production, without considering the demand of the community
IMPACT ON ECONOMY
The primary interest of multinational oil companies is to maximise profit , sometimes with less regards to the consequences of their action. However, oil exploration and exploitation in Gbaramatu kingdom the research found, has destroyed the livelihood of the people since they can either fish or farm due environmental pollution in their communities. Also, a subsequent loss of income and rising cost of living had led many youths either to migrate to near by cities or to engage in illegal activies such as oil theft and illegal refining. This sharply contrasts the positive outlook painted by Shell through their various reports.
For instance, with regards to employment, the figures outlined in the 2009 sustainability report (an estimated 6000 people employed for the Afam project) is insiginifcant taking into the levels of unemployment and poverty still prevalent in the region. The level of poverty is so high the people do not have access to basic amenities such as education, health, transport or running water. The provision of the estimated 6000 jobs in 2009 and the subsequent training of additional total number of 5000 service providers in 2010 not substantial enough to change the economic dynamics of the region. Though these figures looks good for the corporate image of Shell, the reality is that economic condition of 30 million people cannot be changed by providing 6,000 jobs and training another 5,000 in the following year in various skills. This research therefore agrees with the the conclusions of a UNDP report (2013) that addressing many economic challenges of the Niger Delta region begins with the use of its vast oil wealth to create an environment where everyone can thrive.
In addition, the loss of livelihood as a result of the environmental pollution also had dire consequences on the people. Farmlands and river bodies which served as a source of livelihoods were destroyed as a result of the oil extraction. The 2011 investment report by Shell that an amount of 78 million dollars was provided under the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) initiative to deal with theses environmental destructions only covered areas with some 3 million people out of the total estimated population of 30 million. This does not address the immense challenge the various oil spills posed to Gbaramatu kingdom. For instance, in the Bodo oil spill saga in 2008 according to Amesty international report (2014) disrupted the lives of some 69,000 people in Ogoniland. The volume of spillage according to the report was comparable to the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska in 1989.
The situation of oil spillages in the region is further compounded by the fact that, in situations where attempts were made to clean up, they have been grossly inadequate. The 2018 Amnesty International report confirms this assertion when they stated among others that the Niger Delta suffers from an epidemic of oil spills. Every year hundreds of oil splls damage the environment and devastate the lives of people living there. Neither the powerful actors in the oil industry, nor the Nigerian government, have yet been able to put into practice lasting solutions that prevent the spills, and then clean them up effectively. The cumulative impact of decades of contamination makes the Niger Delta, Africa’s most important oil-producing region, one of the most polluted places on earth” (Amnesty International 2018a).
Shell technically omits reports on the devastating effects of pollution that they created in Gbaramatu kingdom which cannot be compensated by few claims of economic empowerment.
CONCLUSION
Niger Delta Region have become a place for continuous conflicts and deep-rooted mistrust for the Indigenous people since the discovery of oil more than 50years ago (Watts 2011). The struggle for economic and infrastructural development that predates Nigerian independence by the Niger Delta people seems unachievable with the present political structure in Nigeria (Akubor 2017). However, the incidence of oil spills negatively impacted the Niger Delta communities and the environment described as one among the worst impacted zone globally. There are times when unprecedented frustration erupts within Gbaramatu kingdom, the youths, and the multinational oil companies that operates in the region due to failed negotiation, lack of basic amenities and environmental degradation (Watts 2007). The multinational oil companies and the Nigerian government have a shared interest in the continuous exploitation of oil in Gbaramatu kingdom with little or no regard to the environmental implications of their action. The Nigerian government enacted various decrees such as the Land Use Act and Petroleum Act1978 which deprived the indigenous people of ownership stakes in land and its resources as well as deny them control of natural resources (International Criss Group 2006).
REFERENCES
- Akhionbare, E. and Osuji, E. 2013. “Effect of Oil Exploration on Socio-Cultural Issues in Oguta Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria” Journal of Environmental Issues and Agriculture in Developing Countries 5 (2): 19-24.
- Akpan, Wilson 2005. ‘‘Putting Oil First? Some Ethnographic Aspects of Petroleum-related Land Use Controversies in Nigeria’’ African Sociological Review 9(2): 152-134
- Akubor, Emmanuel. 2017. ‘‘Willinks’s Report, Niger Delta Region and the Nigerian State, 50years After: Any Hope for the Minority?’’ In Minority Rights and The National Question in Nigeria, edited by Usuanlele Uyilana. and Bonny Ibhawoh, 179-165.
- Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan
- Amnesty International. 2018a, March 16. Nigeria: Negligence in the Niger Delta: Decoding
- Shell and Eni’s Poor Record on Oil Spills. Index Number AFR 44/7970/2018.
- Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/7970/2018/en/
- Amnesty International 2018b, Nigeria: Decades of Neglect, Years of Waiting, It’s Time to Clean up Ogoniland’s Oil Pollution. Index Number AFR 44/8530/2018. Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/8530/2018/en/
- Amnesty International. 2017, November 28. Nigeria: A Criminal Enterprise? Shell’s Involvement in Human Rights Violations in Nigeria in the 1990s. Index Number AFR 44/7393/2017. Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/7393/2017/en/
- Amnesty International 2015, November 3. Nigeria: Clean It Up: Shell’s False Claims about Oil Spill Response in the Niger Delta. Index Number AFR 44/2746/2015.Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/2746/2015/en/
- Amnesty International 2013a, March 1. Nigeria: Human Rights in Perspective: Amnesty International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review, October- November 2013.Index Number AFR 44/003/2013. Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/003/2013/en/
- Amnesty International 2013b, November 7. Nigeria: Bad Information: Oil Spill Investigations in the Niger Delta. Index Number AFR 44/028/2013. Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/028/2013/en/
- Amnesty International 2011, November 10. The True ‘Tragedy’: Delays and Failures in Tackling Oil Spills in the Niger Delta. Index Number AFR 44/018/2011. Accessed at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr44/018/2011/en/
