Assessment of Oil Spillage and Its Control in the Oil and Gas Industry in Nigeria
Chapter One
Aim and Objectives
The aim of this research is to assess the oil and gas industry in Nigeria in relation to the causes of oil spillage, its impact on the environment and the control measures being employed to reduce it to the bearest minimum.
The specific objectives of the study are:
- To provide an overview of environmental issues in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and identify the causes of oil spill in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
- To analyse the working environmental control measures applied by oil and gas companies in Nigeria taking a case study of Shell Nigeria with particular focus on oil spill incidences.
- To recommend the best approaches to achieving high environmental performance in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
The oil and gas industry comprises two parts, which are the upstream and downstream sectors.
- Upstream:- This is the sector responsible for the following:
— Exploration
- Land & Aerial surveys, Satellite Images
- Gravitational, Magnetic & Seismic Surveys
- Exploration Drilling (―Wildcat‖)
- Formation Evaluation
— Development
- Drilling Appraisal/production wells
- Production Facilities
- Gathering Systems
— Production
Downstream:- This sector deals with:
-
- Transportation
- Refining
- Marketing
Oil and Gas has been found to occur in places such as: land, offshore, continental shelves, deep sea, deserts, wetlands, forests, mountainous areas, and arctic regions. These different location types often pose both technological and environmental challenges to the upstream petroleum industry in conducting exploration and production activities. The activities of finding and producing petroleum, however, can impact the environment, and the greatest impact arises from the release of wastes into the environment in concentrations that are not naturally found. These wastes include hydrocarbons, solids contaminated with hydrocarbons, water contaminated with a variety of dissolved and suspended solids, and a wide variety of chemicals. While some of these wastes can have significant adverse effects on the environment, some have little impact, and others are actually beneficial. In virtually all cases, the adverse impact can be minimized or eliminated through the implementation of proper waste management.
The most important steps in minimizing adverse environmental impact by the industry is to take a proactive approach to managing operations and become educated about those activities that can potentially harm the environment. The proactive approach involves adopting an attitude of environmental responsibility—not just to comply with regulations but to actually protect the environment while doing business.
Overview of environmental issues in Petroleum Industry
Finding and producing oil and gas while minimizing adverse environmental impact requires an understanding of the complex issues facing the upstream petroleum industry. These issues concern operations that generate wastes, their potential influence on the environment, mechanisms and pathways for waste migration, effective ways to manage wastes, treatment methods to reduce their volume and/or toxicity, disposal methods, remediation methods for contaminated sites, and all applicable regulations.
Sources of Wastes
Wastes are generated from a variety of activities associated with petroleum production. These wastes fall into the general categories namely: produced water, drilling wastes, and associated wastes.
Produced water, for instance, accounts for about 98% of the total waste stream in the United States, with drilling fluids and cuttings accounting for the remaining 2%. Other associated wastes combined contribute a few tenths of a percent to the total waste volume (American Petroleum Institute, 1987). The total volume of produced water in the United States is roughly 21 billion barrels per year (Perry and Gigliello, 1990). A typical well can generate several barrels of fluid and cuttings per foot of hole drilled. In 1992, 115,903,000 feet of holes were drilled in the United States (American Petroleum Institute, 1993), yielding on the order of 300 million barrels of drilling waste.
Produced water virtually always contains impurities, and if present in sufficient concentrations, these impurities can adversely impact the environment. These impurities include dissolved solids (primarily salt and heavy metals), suspended and dissolved organic materials, formation solids, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide, and have a deficiency of oxygen (Stephenson,1992).
Produced water may also contain low levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials, or NORM (Gray, 1993). In addition to naturally occurring impurities, chemical additives like coagulants, corrosion inhibitors, emulsion breakers, biocides, dispersants, paraffin control agents, and scale inhibitors are often added to alter the chemistry of produced water. Water produced from water flood projects may also contain acids, oxygen scavengers, surfactants, friction reducers, and scale dissolvers that were initially injected into the formation (Hudgins, 1992).
CHAPTER THREE
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
The study relied on secondary data obtained from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company
Annual Statistical report for 2013, Amnesty International 2012 Report on Bodo Oil spill, Shell
Nigeria Monthly/ Annual statistical Reports for 2013, United Nations Environmental Protection Programme Report in Paris (1995), Published materials, Books, and the internet. Secondary data review and analysis involves collecting information, statistics, and other relevant data at various levels of aggregation in order to conduct a situational analysis of an area of study.
Method of Data Collection
The statistical information used was extracted from:
- Official Statistics: Official statistics are statistics collected by governments and their various agencies, bureaus, and departments. These official statistics were obtained from:
Nigerian National Petroleum Company Annual Statistical report for 2013 and Shell Nigeria Monthly/ Annual statistical Reports for 2013, UNEP report for 1995 (Nigeria).
- Non- Governmental Organization like Amnesty International Report on Bodo Oil spill.
- Review Articles from Published materials- Society of Petroleum Engineers Journals and the internet- oil company (Shell, Addax, Chevron) websites, online newspapers- The Guardian Newspaper (July, 1995) and Premium Times (June, 2012)- articles on oil and gas issues.
Most of the data items collected were added up to obtain national aggregates such as total number of oil spills and aggregate quantity of oil spilled. This research adopted comparative study method in analysing the materials obtained through reviewing, interpreting, and cross-analysis of these pieces of information to allow for better understanding of the specific situation in regards to the cause of oil spillage, its impact and control measures being administered. Cross-analysing the data obtained also helped to understand the cause oil spills in Nigeria and why it has been a challenge to the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Current Practices of Shell Nigeria on Environmental Issues
The approach of shell to addressing environmental issues in Nigeria is as follows: Shell has a desire to meet the world‘s growing energy needs and believes the best way to secure a more sustainable energy future is to take action today by focusing their efforts on:
- producing more natural gas;
- developing lotheyr-carbon bio fuels;
- helping to advance carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies;
- working to improve energy efficiency in our operations.
They are also sharpening their focus on ways to limit the environmental impact of their operations by responding effectively to climate change. Shell believes that the need to tackle climate change remains urgent and that the best way to secure a more sustainable energy future is to take action today through the following means of managing environmental impacts:
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Conclusion
Oil spill is caused by vandalisation and operational activities. Obviously, the production of oil and gas generate waste gases and necessitates that there should be control in a manner that protects the environment. But a major problem with oil and gas exploration activities in Nigeria is the inability of governments (federal and state) and their regulatory agencies to control and prevent environmental pollution and other associated problems. This inability is caused by the overlap of responsibilities of regulatory bodies and the nonchalant attitude of government to environmental matters. The insufficiency of our regulatory laws and the high level of corruption in the system are also responsible for the current state of our environment in relation to the oil and gas industry.
Also, the sum of approximately N192 billion was lost through oil spills and Okonjo-Iweala (2014) said in her presentation of the 2014 budget, that the budget envisages net federally collectible revenue of N7.50 trillion. This therefore means that if the value loss from oil spill can be minimized, our country will be able to fund the nation‘s budget with other income revenues without hitch. Our debts will be serviced effectively and there will be no pressing need to borrow from International Monetary Fund (IMF) anymore.
This research has also shown that the working environmental control measures applied by oil and gas companies in Nigeria are not adequate enough to protect our environment and minimize the impact of oil pollution. Shell Nigeria has a record of oil spill amounting to about 3.038 billion barrels over a period of ten years (2003 to 2012) from their pipelines alone either as a result of vandalisation or operational activities. Obviously that is disheartening and much more than this is the fact that remediation has not been effectively carried out to the fullest in the Niger Delta region which has rendered many homeless and jobless leading to increase in criminality in the society. Shell‘s waste management plan is good on paper as it is with other oil companies in Nigeria (as can be seen in Appendix II), but not effectively carried out in reality.
Recommendation
- The Petroleum Industry Bill should be passed into law as soon as possible because it creates an opportunity to break up the existing ineffective structure and greatly increase environmental protection, particularly in relation to oil spills. It also offers the prospect of a new regulator and independent inspectorate.
- The main regulatory framework regarding environmental pollution in the Nigerian system, EGASPIN (Environmental Guidelines and Standards For Petroleum Industry in Nigeria), lies within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Petroleum Resources (DPR). These standards are good but need revision to meet up with world standards. This department must be empowered with the capacity to enforce the laws, either with NOSDRA, or independently.
- The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) or another security outfit should be strongly mandated to position officers round the clock at different locations where we have major pipelines to monitor activities in such areas. This will minimize the occurrence of vandalization of the pipelines which has accounted for more of the oil spill incidences in the country.
- A system should be developed to combat corruption in the oil and gas industry by setting up for instance, a court of arbitration to handle cases of violation of the country‘s environmental regulations which will create an independent process of investigatingoil spills in Nigeria.
- The government should also mandate the regulatory agencies to run educative programmes for the citizens in the oil regions about oil spills and environmental issues in general, the need to avoid vandalisation for the ultimate progress of our economy and other skill acquisition/ entrepreneurship programmes to empower the people with ideas for financial freedom. This will open an avenue to cater for the economic and psychological need of the people.
References
- Adati Ayuba Kadafa (2012). ―Oil Exploration and Spillage in the Niger Delta of Nigeria‖. Civil and Environmental Research, ISSN 2222-1719 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2863 (Online) Vol 2, No.3, 2012.
- American Petroleum Institute (1987). “Oil and Gas Industry Exploration and Production Wastes,” API Publication 471-01-09, Washington, D.C., July 1987.
- American Petroleum Institute (1989). “API Environmental Guidance Document: Onshore Solid Waste Management in Exploration and Production Operations,” presented at Washington, D.C., Jan. 1989.
- American Petroleum Institute (1992). “RP9000, Management Practices: Self-Assessment Process, and Resource Materials,‖ A report presented at Washington, D.C., Dec. 1992.
- American Petroleum Institute (1993). Basic Petroleum Data Handbook, Vol. 13, No. 3, Washington, D.C., Sept. 1993.
- Amnesty International (2012). Report on Bodo oil spill in Ogoniland. Retrieved from: www.amnesty.org/en/library
- Bamidele, O. (2013). ―Oil theft- the fleecing of Nigeria‖. Retrieved from: www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion
- Bleier, R., Leuterman, A. J. J., and Stark, C. (1993). “Drilling Fluids Making Peace with the Environment,” J, Pet. Tech., Jan. 1993, pp. 6-10.
