Nigeria's ignored catastrophe dwarfs US oil spill

[Robbien]

Source: New Zealand Herald

<snip>

One of the hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months.

Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked.

"We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," says Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months."

<snip>

In fact, more oil is spilled from the delta's network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe.


On May 1 this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in Ibeno in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards.



Read more: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/environment/news/article.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10649775

---

The focus on these spills (when they finally got around to focusing on them) was to patch the leak. Little or nothing was done to skim off the leaked oil. The article tells about the reporter going out into the water and Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. Crude that was spilled two years ago.

[Enrique]

1. RW wishes the U.S. were more like Nigeria

where the govt. doesn't do shit.

[Tempest]

2. Actually, the RW wants the government to be a co-conspirator

The Nigerian government is taking money directly from Shell to look the other way and to use government troops to repress the population, just the way the RW likes government to act.

[saigon68]

17. I'm sure Cheney is involved in this somehow

Brazen cruelty is the turd's hallmark.

[glitch]

20. The sooner the planet is oil-soaked the sooner they can shed their itchy fake human skins

[pleah]

3. K&R I just want to cry. n/t

[shireen]

4. it is indeed sickening

It's probably not going to get adequate coverage now because we're so transfixed by the unfolding disaster in the gulf.

You gotta wonder, where was the media while that travesty was unfolding?

I hope that BP gets hit so hard that it collapses in bankruptcy. Then, there will be a precedent for dealing with the mess in Nigeria, and going after the companies that caused it.

[Nihil]

22. Hah!

> It's probably not going to get adequate coverage now because we're so
> transfixed by the unfolding disaster in the gulf.

No, it's not going to get adequate coverage because it is not directly
affecting any Americans (i.e., negatively - they'll still enjoy both the
products and the profits).


> You gotta wonder, where was the media while that travesty was unfolding?

See above.


> I hope that BP gets hit so hard that it collapses in bankruptcy.

Just like Exxon did? Or maybe like Chevron did?


> Then, there will be a precedent for dealing with the mess in Nigeria,
> and going after the companies that caused it.

Wrong. There has already been a precedent for going after polluters but
the US administration is usually on the side of the latter and so block
any attempts at bringing them to justice.

Given the amount of time spent on "foreign news" in your mass media,
do you really think that things are going to change?
:shrug:

[joanmj]

5. K & R! n/t

[Robbien]

6. Harper's has an item up today

More on BP’s Oily Mess, in the Gulf and in Nigeria
http://harpers.org/archive/2010/06/hbc-90007168

By Ken Silverstein

The oil spill in the Gulf was the topic of an item posted yesterday, which cited the remarks of a man who grew up in Nigeria and now lives in the United States. I received further interesting comments from him today:

There was an oil spill in the Niger Delta in the years after high school when I worked with the Shell-BP Petroleum Development Co. Nigeria Ltd. So I was quite aware of the implications of the accident when it happened in the Gulf as I watched folks’ reaction escalate from day to day. It was interesting for me to observe how totally violated people here feel to a practice that is routine in the the Niger Delta. There, the people’s environment have been ruined for generations. Folks cannot farm their lands or fish their waters and they breathe polluted air all their lives. When they complained they were killed or threatened by the government. Only the current government is trying to make good with the Delta communities, too little too late, after violent resistance.

[Karenina]

15. Now check out how BP behaves in Scotland.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x470575

Please just watch part 1 then tell me if you watched the rest.

[dipsydoodle]

7. It is obviously of no consolation of those in the Gulf

that they are not alone with such issues. The good which may come out of this is that whatever the basis for penalties which arw applied to BP the same is likely to be made to apply in other countries elsewhere on the same basis.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. BP will not be punished here...

and Shell will not be punished there.

[marshall]

19. Misery loves company, as the saying goes....

And the powers that be can take cold comfort in not being as bad.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Robbien.

[Robbien]

12. You are welcome Uncle Joe

Nice to see you. :hi:

How's the situation in Tennessee after the massive floods?

[Uncle Joe]

14. We're regrouping, the second water plant reopened after repairs, so water restriction use is over.

Some places are still closed, ie; Opry Mills but others are gradually opening up.

Thanks for asking, Robbien, peace to you and y'all come.:hi:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. The oil companies should pay out to the African people - how much has Exxon paid out?

[Igel]

10. And the mess in Nigeria is nothing new.

The collapse of the USSR saw a rush for oil remediation equipment to clean up millions of barrels of oil spilled in Siberia. The Soviet government didn't much care about mostly uninhabited land when pipelines ruptured because of shoddy pipes or shoddy installation, and didn't always get repair crews out quickly.

The rush for equipment to salvage the oil was driven by purely mercenary purposes: It was there, it wasn't clear that the government would bother with it, and it would be worth a lot of money. Of course, the group I was interpreter for was corrupt as well, ex-Communist Party bosses from the area out to cement their power under a new regime, but at least there were plans to suck up the petroleum.

This environmental problem got virtually no media attention in the early '90s. Should have. This kind of thing is good for perspective, esp. when there are revisionist arguments about how the USSR wasn't so bad or it's good to have government be regulator and producer and consumer.

In fact, in Nigeria there was this same conflict of interest: If you fine the oil companies then you'll have less income. But corrupt politicians crave income. If you don't have to care about the populace or even hold them in contempt--cf. the USSR--then there's no real political downside to an environmental disaster as long as there's no negative PR that would harsh your welcome in ritzy resorts or on visits to other political leaders.

[Robbien]

11. With China recently buying up a whole lot of natural resource rights in Africa

I don't expect the situation is going to get much better any time soon.

[JCMach1]

16. Returning tankers into the Persian Gulf often illegally flush their tanks

into the waters near the straits of Hormuz and the east coast of the UAE. Oil and tarballs on the beach are a fixture. As was the plague of redtide that lasted nearly two years from the pollution.

Big oil is DIRTY! Americans just have never had much of a lesson in just HOW dirty.

[Judi Lynn]

18. Clearly our own corporate media serves the predators, and denies us access to the truth.

Thank you for posting this article, Robbien. We need to know. Always. Regardless.

[Haole Girl]

21. Never saw it in the news

I cringe when I wonder how much more goes on that we never hear about.

:-(