IntroductionThe Niger Delta is a center for oilfield operations, which involves exploration and production. This however leads to waste generation that when not properly handled impacts the environment negatively. Oil-based drill cuttings are generated in large quantities during drilling for oil and gas. They are presently being managed by re-injection and thermal desorption but these approaches are not environment friendly (Mkpaoro et al., 2015). A possible solution to avoid this problem would have being to stop use of oil-based muds, which leads to production of oil-based drill cuttings that usually contain high concentrations of petroleum hydrocarbons and some amount of heavy metals and salts (Kogbara et al., 2019;Zhu et al., 2019). The advantages of enhanced penetration rate, increased production time, and lowered operation costs (Mkpaoro et al., 2015) associated with oil-based muds however encourages their use in place of a relatively environment friendly water-based and synthetic based muds.Phytoremediation is an eco-friendly and viable technology for reducing petroleum hydrocarbon concentration in oil-based drill cuttings contaminated soils (Dumkhana & Ekemube, 2020;Kogbara et al., 2019;Zhu et al., 2019). This technology involves use of living plants to detoxify, degrade, and immobilize contaminants. The plant roots make direct contact with soil contaminants during phytoremediation and they provide a zone, called rhizosphere, for increased microbial activities. By implication, phytoremediation of soil contaminants, especially biodegradable ones, are more effective when conditions for microbial growth are maintained. Nutrient supply is a main consideration for maintaining optimum growth of plant and soil micro-organisms. This is because nutrient depletion is a limiting factor for plant and microbial growth in petroleum hydrocarbon contaminated soils. But grass species are hardy, grow in low nutrient soils, and have a fibrous root system with large surface area for plant-microbe associations. Microorganisms, including bacterial and fungal species, carry out degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons and have been isolated in polluted sites (Mahmoud & Bagy, 2019). Considerable phytoremediation efficiency has been achieved with grass species planted in oil-based drill