Nick Ashton-Jones, with Oronto Douglas and Susi Arnott

“ The willingness with which mining companies tend to exploit this process, springs from the historical entrenched culture of the Western oil companies in their relationships with third world countries. This oil industry culture is founded on five assumptions:
that profit maximisation is the only basis upon which a company can be run, so that any expenditure beyond what is required to get out the oil is resisted; that a 'deal' can be made with governments only, regardless of the government's legality or morality, and regardless also of the wishes or needs of the Local People ”

“ Next to oil, its associate product, gas, is the most important, and likely to become more so in years to come.
The previous chapters have discussed renewable natural resources. If their exploitation is managed properly - so that the ecosystems, which produce them, remain viable - they can be produced indefinitely, be they fish, bushmeat, timber or agricultural produce. Thus, fishermen, hunters, loggers and farmers have an incentive to manage these ecosystems sensibly in order to ensure they continued supply of what they need. ”

“ Although exploited on a much less dramatic scale than oil and gas, sand is the next most important mineral extracted from the Niger Delta. It is used for land reclamation, for making concrete and cement blocks, and as the raw material for glass production at Ughelli. Most comes from riverbeds in the Fresh-water ecozone, and also, to a lesser extent, from the Lowland Equatorial Monsoon and Sand-barrier Island ecozones. ”

“ The immense weight of the delta (where, at its thickest, the sediments are over 15 km thick) compresses the lower layers (strata) of sediment and also depresses the earth's crust, which periodically subsides as a result. Each time this subsidence occurs, the front (seaward) portion of the delta slumps downwards and forwards creating a fault, introducing sea water (and thus marine conditions) to be brought inshore. Following the subsidence there is a period of stability when fresh riverine deposits are laid over and beyond the older slumped part of the delta, until there is another subsidence. ”

“ The obvious solution to the waste would seem to be the development of markets for the desirable low-sulphur gas and/or re-injection into the sandstone sponge until such a market is developed.
The local market (for natural gas) is undeveloped and the marketing is still uncertain. Nigeria has very few pipelines to get gas to the users - a few factories and power stations around Lagos and Port Harcourt - and most consumers rely on cheap petrol, diesel and kerosene or erratic supplies of electricity. ”

“ Sand can be viewed as a locally renewable resource because it is replaced by the rivers which bring it down stream, in its progress towards the sea, where much of it is swept back to form the beach ridges of the Delta coast. ”

“ Where commercial quantities of oil are struck, the exploration well becomes a production well. Here the Production String, being a steel tube of about 12cm diameter, is let down into the well, as shown in figure 7. The end of the tube is perforated to allow any gas, the oil and the water to flow into it. The productive zone of the well is sealed off from the rest of the well by a rubber Packer. ”

“ Following the former USSR, Iran and Northwest Europe, Nigeria has some of the largest proven reserves of natural gas in the world at about 3 trillion cubic metres, some 2% of world reserves. As with oil, Nigerian natural gas is especially valued because of its low sulphur content. ”

“ The drilling fluids also prevent the sides of the hole from caving in, and are used to control the pressures within the hole. Drilling fluids can be a simple mixture of water and clay (mud) or combinations of oil and chemicals. Usually, the fluid is stored and mixed on site, and having returned up the annulus, it can be cleaned and used again.
As the well is deepened, more sections of pipe are added to the string. When the well is deep enough sections of protective steel casing pipes are let down as a lining. Down to about 100m the diameter of the well is about 60cms diameter. ”

“ Boring a well involves using a giant drill. Onshore, the drill equipment is housed within an open steel girder tower called a Derrick, which is about 50m high and mounted upon a platform set about 11m above ground. Within the derrick, a system of pulleys and a wire rope, called a Drilling Line, acts like a crane, from the hook of which is suspended the Drill String. ”

“ This not only damages human ecosystems, leading to deprivation and environmental health problems, but it also distorts social conditions. This distortion of social conditions in turn influences political conditions in terms of people's views about their ability to change the society in which they live and the degree to which these views translate into tension between different groups within society. ”

“ Nonetheless, it would be wrong to assume that mining inevitably has a greater impact than does the exploitation of ecosystems for renewable natural resources. For instance a well-managed oil field can have a much less damaging impact than a large mono-crop plantation. A farm road has no less of an impact than a road serving an oil field.
14.2 OIL MINING IN THE NIGER DELTA: THE MORAL ISSUE
Nigeria has an undemocratic and corrupt political process. ”

“ An array of technical, geographical and financial factors do not make for an easy solution. Nonetheless efforts are being made to commercially exploit the gas, which point to future scenarios: four examples are given below. ”