End Gas Flaring

The Nigerian Civil Society Platform Against Gas Flaring, a group comprised of grassroots and community groups based in the Niger Delta, recently sent a memorandum to the Nigerian House of Representatives to urge the body to end gas flaring.

Here is some of what their report and a subsequent interview with one of the campaign’s coordinators revealed:

In Nigeria, 2.5 billion cubic feet of gas are flared per day. This is more than any other country in Africa and equals the greenhouse gas output of all of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined. As of 2007, 70% of Nigeria’s oil fields still flare gas.

Gas flaring affects around 20 communities in the Niger Delta, half of which are in Rivers state. The others are in Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa States. Some of the main problems caused by gas flaring in the host communities are:

• Skin and respiratory complications (although the full impact has not been measured yet)
• Low birth weight and deformed babies
• Death of plants and disturbing of wildlife creating hunger and malnourishment
• Lowered fertility rates

Furthermore, gas flaring contributes heavily to global warming and rising sea levels as well as being a waste of resources for the Nigerian people.

If the Government were to invest in a way to capture, use and sell this natural gas, it would be a huge boon to the economy and also a way to provide cheap power to the people of the Nation. However, since the government thinks they will lose the revenue from the flaring fines they charge, they are not willing to make the long-term investment. But where has this fine money gone?

The Department of Petroleum Resources has been collecting around 16 or 17 million dollars a year from the oil companies, according to some calculation, for the past 40 years as compensation for flaring. This money has never been accounted for and certainly has not been reinvested back into the communities affected. The rate of compensation has actually been raised as of 2008, but the Government has not actually enforced the change.

The oil companies say flares are down. This is true but only because oil production is down as a result of the militancy. Although the oil and gas companies are reluctant to provide any information, there are many good estimates. Here is a crude breakdown by well known companies in order of amount of flaring done and where:

• Shell (SPDC and SNEPCO) flared 584 million cubic feet per day in Rivers state.
• Chevron (CNL) flared 486 million cubic feet per day in Bayelsa and Delta states.
• Agip flares around 375 million cubic feet per day in Rivers state.
• Total (Elf/EPNL) flared 240 million cubic feet per day in Rivers state.

The Nigerian Civil Society Platform Against Gas Flaring is calling on the Nigerian government to:

• Enact and enforce legislation to end gas flaring immediately. Previous flare-out dates have been passed in clear violation of the Federal High Court’s ruling that gas flaring is illegal
• Enact legislation to compel companies to harness the flared gas for power generation nad energy in the Niger Delta
  
• There should be a participatory audit of flaring to ascertain damage and give grounds to compensation to community victims of the practice.
• Force oil and gas companies to cease operations in any field that is still flaring gas.
• Fines should be imposed on gas flarers should go directly into a Special Community Health Fund to help deal with the direct and indirect impacts of the problem.

Kono community report

March 21st & 22nd, Kono, Khana Kingdom, Ogoniland


Shell Yorla oil well number nine blew up in May, 2008 causing a substantial oil spill. It was so bad that the creek source, five villages away, had to be dammed to keep the spill from spreading further. The head of the Community Development Committee, produced letters they had been sending to Shell, the regional government, the Ministry of Environment and so on. Nobody has yet to take any action or responsibility. When asked how much oil had spilled, the CDC representatives said they had no idea and that the government urged them to spend 25,000 dollars of their own money to have an environmental impact study done.

The spill has created hunger and has polluted the water severely. This latter issue was borne out upon visiting one of the town wells. The water it produced was yellow and cloudy. The CDC rep said that people ignorantly went on drinking it anyway even though it was dangerous, but admitted that there was no alternative. In the center of the village we inspected a water pump that had been installed by some straw companies as a way to pacify the locals. None of the 12 throughout the village worked or ever has.

Beyond the macroeconomic problems of the Nigerian nation, the main issues faced in Kono are:

- A lack of access to clean drinking water. There have been problems to due seepage from oil installations that have polluted the surface water and underlying tables. The recent spill has made things much worse.

- Health complications and lack of access to care. Eye and stomach problems are prevalent in the community as a result of prolonged exposure to contaminants. Chest and lung problems are also common from continued aspiration of toxic particles. The predecessor to the NDDC built a heath clinic in the town but never sent a doctor

- Food scarcity and contamination. Kono is a predominantly a fishing and farming village. We spoke to the sister-in-law of a man who died from eating contaminated cassava over a period of time. Everyone agreed that the town’s land has been ruined, making it impossible to farm, and that the creeks have been polluted to such an extent that fish and snail populations have been deeply reduced.

- Migration to the city. We met with scores of villagers who had moved to Port Harcourt looking for work in the absence of any alternative in Kono. Most have not been able to find any due to lack of appropriate skills and tribal discrimination. We visited one small room that housed nine alone.

The Kono authorities are calling on the Shell Petroleum Development Company to come and clean up their mess. Specifically, they want a professional, international company with experience to come and do the work. They are also asking for an economic development center that will give local youth a chance to prepare themselves. Finally, some of the farmers are asking for compensation for crops that have been destroyed. They are fully prepared to take a peaceful approach to negotiations but are tiring of the lack of attention from the company and the government authorities.

Bodo community report

From six in the morning on March 21st, residents of Bodo in Gokana Kingdom of Ogoniland sieged an SPDC oil manifold in their community. The protest, attended by some five hundred men and women was held in response to the ongoing neglect of Shell and the government to attend to a large offshore spill affecting their community since September.

From atop the oil manifold, the Youth Council president exhorted the crowd, shouting that they were going to blow up the manifold in a week if Shell didn’t bring relief materials and come with a clean-up plan. When asked if taking this action wouldn’t give the police an excuse to brand them as militants and come and kill them, he answered: ‘Let them come. We are ready for any consequence. If some of us must be killed to make our point, then so be it. We will die just like other Ogoni martyrs before us.’
Shell quit Ogoniland some time ago, but many of the oil pipelines have natural pressure which pushes the oil through, as is the case in Bodo. In essence, Shell gets this oil and has no need to do any maintenance or be available to the community. The burst pipe in question was originally installed in the 1950’s. There have been intermittent leaks in Bodo since 2003, and either nothing had been done, or the company had hired scarecrow remediation companies owned by local strongmen who had no expertise whatsoever and did nothing.

Oil companies have been known to complain that local communities sabotage pipelines to get valuable clean-up contracts. This certainly happens in some places, but in Bodo, they are calling for a professional, foreign company to come and clean up the mess.

Behind the oil manifold enclosure, some 500 yards down a path is the marsh. Total destruction. There is a line a foot up the grass where the oil has risen to. Everything is dead for as far as the eye can see.

After the protest, a group of over fifty women gathered and began shouting their grievances in Ogoni. Via an interpreter from the Youth Council, two matriarchs were chosen to represent the group. They detailed how there was widespread hunger and thirst in the community: all the fish had been killed, the water contaminated, access to the creeks blocked and the ground-soil polluted and crops poisoned. One woman presented a meager basket of cassava meant to feed her family for a week. It was only enough for one person. Another woman pushed forward and said her eight year old son had died of hunger.

A higher up in the Youth Council, the same one who had been interpreting, told of his frustrations and how he felt control slipping out of his hands. He said it was getting impossible to calm the youth in the town and that he was sure some of them would slip into militancy and armed action. ‘A hungry man is an angry man,’ he said. If they blow up the oil manifold next week, it might be one step in this dreaded direction.

Bodo and Kono communities photos