OIL CONTAMINATION IN THE NIGER DELTA

ABSTRACT Oil spills in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has occurred frequently since oil extraction started in the 1950's. The oil spills originates from facilities and pipelines, leaks from ageing and abandoned infrastructure and from spills during transport and artisanal refining of stolen oil under primitive conditions. It is estimated that spills in Nigeria amount to 100 000 to 200 000 tons per year and have been doing so for almost 60 years. While a number of reports have been written about the Niger Delta and the civil unrest in this area during the last decades, very few scientific reports with actual data regarding the extent of the contamination has been published. This paper describes the contamination of sediments and water in a part of the Niger Delta, which has been particularly hard to assess for decades: Ogoniland. It does not discuss the origin of the oil spills. During 2010, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) conducted an extensive environmental assessment of Ogoniland. The...