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Oil companies and village development in Nigeria
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Examination of the effects of oil development on the Alaska Inupiat based on a random sample of 290 adults residing in six North Slope communities in 1977. This is the first of series of studies based on a common research design, including John A Kruse, 1991, Human Organization, Effects of Inupiat Subsistence and Wage Employment Patterns: Understanding Individual Choice, Vol.50(4), p. 317.
(1) Air, soil and leaf temperatures increased and relative humidity of the air decreased within c. 110 m of six flare sites near Port Harcourt in south-eastern Nigeria. (2) Leaf chlorophyll content and internode length of Eupatorium odoratum plants decreased close to the flares. The flowering of the short-day plant, E. odoratum was suppressed in the area of the flares. (3) A bare area, 30-40 m in radius, occurs around the flare stacks. Outside this bare area, the species composition of the vegetation was affected by the flares up to a distance of from 80 to 100 m from the stacks. (4) The total number of species decreased close to the flares, but the proportion of carpeting and C4 plants increased.
The effect of an experimental minor oil spill on the number of plant species and productivity of a tropical grass-herb community was assessed. The spillage had a devastating effect on the simple ecosystem and especially on the component herbaceous species such as Aspilia africana, Eupatorium odoratum and Emilia spp. At least 50% of the species in the affected habitats became extinxt immediately following the spill. Perennial species generally were less affected. Productivity was reduced by as much as 74%. The total production for a period of 6 months at the polluted sites was 128 g m−2 as against 495 g m−2 for the unaffected sites. The intensity of the effects tended to be inversely related to the structural complexity of the community. The ecological implications of these effects are discussed.
Nigeria's growth into one of the world's leading exporter of petroleum has been accompanied by an increasing stress of oil exploitation activities on the environment of the producing areas. The environment is disturbed through the flaring of gas in oil‐fields and the spillage of oil, amongst others. This study in the Forcados region involving two small communities ‐ Odimodi and Ogulagha ‐ gives an indication of the dimensions of the various problems consequent on petroleum exploitation. The major problems identified include pollution in all its ramifications, destruction of property and displacement. Although there are instances where communities in the oil‐producing area profit from that activity, the environmental issue has forced the hitherto lax Government to take steps to ensure that all oil companies pursue anti‐pollution programmes.
Taxes and royalties from the oil industry in Nigeria have made possible massive infrastructural and social development throughout
the country; this single industry continues to be the most important contributor to the national treasury. Along with oil,
however, have come environmental and social problems, some severe and, in the social sector, possibly of long duration. Questionnaires
were employed to solicit environmental and socioeconomic information from residents in the oil-impacted area as well as to
ascertain the views of the oil companies with respect to their Nigerian operations, in particular to their socio-economic
responsibilities to the local residents. Responses point to serious discontent on the part of the impacted population, especially
in the most important southern (Niger Delta) oil producing region. These negative attitudes in part are based upon the impacted
population’s inability to secure for itself a sufficiently large number of oil industry jobs and in part to the presence in
the local community of ethnic strangers who do have such employment. There is evidence of serious environmental damage, but
its biological dimension has been overshadowed by claims for monetary compensation at the local level. Data derived from these
investigations might well be applicable in the wider field of trans-national mining and petroleum extraction operations in
developing countries, especially to the unwritten social obligations of the expatriate firm to local residents.
Effects of gas flaring on the micro-climate and adjacent
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