Oil Contamination in Ogoniland, Niger Delta

Abstract

The study shows extensive oil contamination of rivers, creeks, and ground waters in Ogoniland, Nigeria. The levels found in the more contaminated sites are high enough to cause severe impacts on the ecosystem and human health: extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPHs) ([10-C40) in surface waters up to 7420 lg L -1 , drinking water wells show up to 42 200 lg L -1 , and benzene up to 9000 lg L -1 , more than 900 times the WHO guidelines. EPH concentrations in sediments were up to 17 900 mg kg -1 . Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons concentrations reached 8.0 mg kg -1 , in the most contaminated sites. The contamination has killed large areas of mangroves. Although the natural conditions for degradation of petroleum hydrocarbons are favorable with high temperatures and relatively high rainfall, the recovery of contaminated areas is prevented due to the chronic character of the contamination. Oil spills of varying magnitude originates from facilities and pipelines; leaks from aging, dilapidated, and abandoned infrastructure; and from spills during transport and artisanal refining of stolen oil under very primitive conditions.

Petroleum Hydrocarbons Contamination of Surface Water and Groundwater in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

“…According to Ite et al [1], every stage of petroleum resources exploration, development and production, decommissioning and rehabilitation, transportation and distribution often results in some considerable environmental impacts, human health risks and deterioration of our cultural heritage items as well as socio-economic problems within the oil producing host communities in the region. The major sources of environmental pollution in the Niger Delta region include oil spillage, pipeline explosion, gas flaring and venting, improper disposal of large volumes of petroleum-derived hazardous waste streams, such as drilling mud, oily and toxic sludge [12], equipment failure/oil spills associated with ageing facilities, sabotage of petroleum facilities, illegal oil bunkering and artisanal refining [1,5,27,31], oil well blowout, oil blast discharges and other operational discharges [1,4,5,9,10,36,44,45,46]. Historically, the two largest individual spills in Nigeria include the Royal Dutch Shell's Forcados oil export terminal tank failure in 1978 (a spillage of approximately 580,000 barrels or 92,000 m 3 of oil) and the blowout of a Texaco Funiwa-5 offshore station in 1980 (a spillage of approximately 400,000 barrels or 64,000 m 3 of oil) [47,48].…”

“…In a related study, Lindén and Pålsson [71] investigated the extensive petroleum hydrocarbons contamination of rivers, creeks, and ground waters in Ogoniland, Nigeria. The levels of pollutants in the more contaminated sites are high enough to cause severe impacts on the ecosystem and human health.…”

“…The levels of pollutants in the more contaminated sites are high enough to cause severe impacts on the ecosystem and human health. For example, the concentration of extractable petroleum hydrocarbons (EPHs) (>C 10 -C 40 ) in surface waters was up to 7420 μg l -1 in these communities [71]. EPH concentrations in sediments were up to 17 900 mg kg l -1 .…”

“…Since 1956, the discovery of petroleum resources in commercial quantities in Oloibiri (Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State) placed Nigeria among the group of oil producing nations, which today remains among many of Africa's largest oil producing countries. Apart from poor governance systems in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, poor corporate social responsibility (CSR) of multinational oil companies (MOCs), poor environmental regulation of the petroleum industry, the inability of the political elite to effectively manage petroleum hydrocarbon-derived revenue, loss of petroleum hydrocarbons resource revenue to corruption and theft, inadvertent discharges of petroleum hydrocarbons and its products have equally contributed to severe environmental degradation, deterioration of our cultural heritage items as well as complex socio-economic problems over the past fifty-five years [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. According to Ite et al [5], the inadvertent discharges of petroleum hydrocarbons and chemical-derived waste streams associated with petroleum exploration and production have caused environmental pollution, adverse environmental and/or human health problems, negative impacts on the terrestrial ecosystems, detrimental impacts on regional economy, socio-economic problems and degradation of oil producing host communities in the Niger Delta region.…”

The nexus of oil, conflict, and climate change vulnerability of pastoral communities in northwest Kenya

“…It has long been known that oil spills on land can "pose long term threats to groundwater quality" (Duffy et al, 1980). Studies conducted in Nigeria show that oil extraction can have detrimental effects on the environment and local populations, especially where environmental regulations are lacking or are not enforced, like in Kenya (for Nigeria see Linden and Palsson, 2013;Iwegbue, 2007;Orisakwe, 2009). Apart from the risk of contamination of drinking water (Owamah et al, 2013), for example by so-called non-aqueous-phase liquids, there is the possibility of inter-aquifer leakage.…”