Nigeria is the world’s forgotten oil tragedy

As US President Barack Obama extracts his pound of flesh from BP in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico spill, a little acknowledged but equally catastrophic oil disaster continues to plague Nigeria.A series of spills, some of them the responsibility of the American multinational ExxonMobil, have been polluting the Niger delta for five decades.One estimate says the amount spilled in the region over nearly 50 years totals 10.5 million barrels. That is more than five times the worst estimate of the spillage so far from the Deepwater Horizon leak in the Gulf.Yes despite the pollution, illness and poverty caused by the ongoing leaks in Nigeria, they rarely make the international headlines. And there has been no high-profile effort to correct the situation.One of the more recent spills occurred on May 1 when an ExxonMobil pipeline in the Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than 25,000 barrels into the delta when it ruptured. While the world watched the Gulf catastrophe of April 20 unfold, the Niger spill went virtually unreported. It was at least seven days before the leak was stopped.Residents who demonstrated against ExxonMobil claim they were attacked by security guards. They say their calls for $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of income suffered as a result of the leak have been ignored by the multinational. Six weeks after the pipeline ruptured, thick balls of tar are still being washed up on the beach.The Niger delta is the source of light Nigerian crude – the world’s best quality oil – and supplies 40 per cent of all crude imported by the United States. With 606 oil fields, the region is covered in hundreds of pipelines, many of which are more than 40 years old and in need of repair.Nigerian academics and environmental groups argue that multinational oil companies have acted so recklessly in the region that much of the delta has been destroyed by leaks. Life expectancy in its rural communities has fallen to just over 40 years, while at least half the population have little or no access to clean water.Days after the Akwa Ibom accident, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days later, large oil slicks were found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayela state as well as in Ogoniland, thought to be caused by leaks from ancient corroding pipelines.

In 2006, a study by WWF UK calculated that up to 1.5 million tons of oil – approximately 10.5 million barrels - had been spilled in the delta over five decades. That’s more than 40 times the 250,000 barrels spilled when the Exxon Valdez tanker hit a reef off Alaska in 1989 – which, when the WWF report was made, was still the most high-profile oil spill in history.Today, Nigerians see frantic efforts being made in the US to clear up the Gulf of Mexico leak while as many as 300 spills a year in the Niger delta are ignored by the Nigerian government, the oil corporations and the United States and Europe.

"It happens all the year round,” said Nnimo Bassey, the Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International, in a recent interview with the Observer. “The whole environment is devastated. The latest revelations highlight the massive difference in the response to oil spills. In Nigeria, both companies and government have come to treat an extraordinary level of oil spills as the norm."

It will not have been lost on Bassey and other campaigners for Nigeria that Rex Tillerson, chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil, told the US Congress on Tuesday that his corporation would have been just as powerless as BP to stop the catastrophic Gulf oil leak.

"When these things happen we are not very well equipped to handle them," said Tillerson. "There is no response capability that will guarantee you will never have an impact. It does not exist." ·