In Nigeria, a Big Oil Toll

Wall Street Journal

11 Auguest 2011

In Nigeria, a Big Oil Toll

.A landmark United Nations study into the long-term environmental impact of oil production in Nigeria says that oil spills have led to acute health risks for area residents and widespread environmental damage that may take as many as 30 years and $1 billion to clean up.

The report released Thursday also shines a spotlight on the activities of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, which for years drilled in the area and which funded the report.

U.N. Study: Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland

."The oil industry has been a key sector of the Nigerian economy for over 50 years, but many Nigerians have paid a high price, as this assessment underlines," said Achim Steiner, U.N. under-secretary general and the executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, which carried out the report.

The study, which focused on one small region of the vast Niger Delta and was commissioned by the Nigerian government and funded by Royal Dutch Shell, found that drinking water in at least 10 communities was contaminated with hydrocarbons and that the contamination went as deep as five meters below ground in some places. Shell no longer operates in the studied area.

Mr. Steiner said the report provided the scientific basis on which a long-overdue environmental restoration of the area, known as Ogoniland, can begin. The report recommends establishing three institutions in Nigeria, including a cleanup fund, to underpin the restoration effort.