By: Roy op het Veld
Hold on tight for this awkward story from the The Washington Post.
- Shell and other Western multinationals are selling their oil fields in Nigeria little by little. This is part of the strategy to reduce CO2 emissions. But also because theft and sabotage in Nigeria seems ineradicable.
- Local Nigerian companies that have taken over oil fields in the Niger Delta are much more slow to respond to oil spills (which occur when oil is illegally tapped), environmentalists say. The reason for this is that the poverty-stricken population has never benefited from oil extraction.
- Greenhouse gas emissions from flaring gas - the burning of excess natural gas released during oil extraction - have increased dramatically.
- At the same time, information on the environmental impact of oil extraction has become scarce, as local companies make fewer environmental commitments.
- Fishing in parts of the delta area is only a fraction of what it was.
- Since 2020, Western oil multinationals have sold $1.1 billion worth of oil fields to local Nigerian companies. ExxonMobil is working on selling oil fields for $1.2 billion. When that sale is completed, local companies will for the first time control a larger share of oil extraction than western multinationals.
- The Nigerian government should assess potential buyers more rigorously on environmental standards. But rattling legislation and corruption make such an approach impossible, Nigerian lawyers and environmentalists say.
"We were excited that our brothers were in charge," one fisherman said in the Washington Post article. He refers to an oil field that Shell sold in 2015 to the Aiteo Group, a Nigerian company. "We thought they would understand our needs. ... But it's gone from bad to worse."
At the end of the article, the same fisherman says, "Aiteo killed us. let Shell come back and exploit the field."
What is wisdom?
#olie #gas #nigeria #energietransitie #milieu #corruptie
Big Oil is selling off its polluting assets — with unintended consequences
Shell says its divestments in Nigeria help the company meet its green goals. But villagers and watchdogs say conditions have worsened after the sales.
https://lnkd.in/eA3SVFtH