This week 700 million pairs of eyes from all around the world were focused on Africa to see Spain finally win Football's World Cup. It's now time those eyes focused on another kind of ball -- balls of oil fouling the environment off the coast of Nigeria.
The story line sounds familiar. A big oil company (in this case ExxonMobil) leaks vast amounts of oil, pollutes the waters (in this case the Atlantic Ocean) killing the fish, local industries and any hopes of a rapid clean up.
It's time the world paid attention. I've been reporting this story since ExxonMobil decided to import a 30-year-old leaking oil platform to Nigeria from Angola, a platform even Angola's government regulators rejected! I'm no businessman, but that doesn't exactly sound like a good investment.
But just as BP has handled its oil spill disaster off in the Gulf of Mexico, ExxonMobil and the Nigerian government are handling things incredibly poorly too. In fact, they're trying to act as if this spill hasn't happened. American media outlets have been denied access to Nigeria. The government has imposed a 50-mile media blackout around the spill site -- from land, air and sea -- so no one can get close and see the disaster first hand. My sources tell me that ExxonMobil officials have been bribing local Nigerian officials in the hope they can "make it all go away."
But I won't let it go away. Since founding SaharaReporters.com five years ago, I have made it my job to be a citizen journalist, and report freely, accurately and fairly to expose the corruption of the Nigerian government.
Here's what ExxonMobil and the government in Nigeria don't want you to know. They don't want you to know this 30-year-old platform is still leaking at least five thousand of barrels of crude a day. They don't want you to know that they can't fix the leak (sounds familiar again doesn't it?) They don't want you to know that if the current pipes break further before they can fix the platform, it will release 60 to 100 thousand of barrels of oil a day.
This environmental catastrophe has been going on since December 2009, when I first broke the story. ExxonMobil repeatedly denied that anything had happened, but the pictures attached to this article tell a different story. It's an eerily familiar story. There's oil on the surface of the ocean, wildlife coated in crude, fishermen losing their businesses.
Only in the last 10 days did ExxonMobil finally issue a statement to "BusinessDay and News Agency of Nigeria" saying only two barrels of oil had spilled
The timing of that statement was interesting -- perhaps because ExxonMobil had another environmental PR disaster on its hands -- this time in the United States. ExxonMobil owns the largest oil refinery in the U.S. But just last week, the Associated Press reported the Baytown refinery violated federal air pollution laws thousands of times during the last five years, releasing 10 million pounds of illegal pollution, including cancer-causing toxins. According to environmental groups, ExxonMobil got away without facing proper fines or being forced to fix equipment. Yes, it's a familiar story.
Nigeria is a country of 140 million people. Kick backs to government officials are the normal way of doing business. Perhaps that's why this oil spill hasn't got the attention it should. Journalists can't report it, but I can. And just as I finish writing this piece comes word that BP's stocks went up with news that ExxonMobil may buy it. Sounds like a partnership made in heaven.
John DeCock: British Petroleum, by Any Other Name, Would Smell as Foul
These multi-national companies are incredibly powerful but his information needs to get out there and without people like you, it wouldn't happen.
What we don't know is how precarious these underwater wells truly are. BP believes they'll solve this oil disaster with a bottom kill but if everyday it seems another "unknown" and not predicted issue surfaces,
what makes them so sure they'll be successful? We're dancing with the devil and we don't know what will happen when the music stops!
On May 1 a leak did occur in one of Mobil Producing Nigeria’s (MPN’s) offshore pipelines more than 20 km offshore. MPN immediately isolated and depressurized the line, shut in production and notified regulatory authorities. Less than 300 barrels escaped (as confirmed by NOSDRA) and was treated with regulatory approved dispersants. Unfortunately, some oil did reach the shoreline and was cleaned up in full cooperation with the community, state and federal regulatory authorities.
On June 19 there was a discharge of 1.5 barrels of oil at MPN’s Yoho platform while a tanker was loading. Regulatory authorities were promptly notified and the discharge was treated and dispersed.
Spill figures are not hidden. From 2006 through 2009, a total of 120 barrels of oil was released as a result of the operations of ExxonMobil affiliates into Niger Delta waters in a handful of smaller isolated incidents. We strive to prevent any spills and deeply regret any that occur, regardless of how small. It is important to keep the actual size and scope of this oil spill record in context when reporting about potential impacts or damage claims.
And they say BP didn't learn anything from earlier oil spills
"The Associated Press reported the Baytown refinery violated federal air pollution laws thousands of times during the last five years, releasing 10 million pounds of illegal pollution, including cancer-causing toxins"
This is actually about 10 miles from my parents' house and I've been saying this for years. It is incredibly scary what they release and what they get away with. I don't think it's just this plant. It's a lot of the plants here in the Houston area as well.
Congrats on getting this article on Huffpost. I just called your wife to let her know I saw it. Please keep up the good work. It's a shame what's happening in Nigeria and we should all try and keep it in the news until something is done about it. Thanks once again for bringing this to people's attention.
If it is truly a world's problem, it is our problem also. I don't mean this only as an ethical statement. The World's oceans are connected, as is the atmosphere. Pestilence, disease, poverty, war routinely ignore National borders, as do Postnational corporations. It all depends how big you want to draw the "We" in your statement. Maybe "WE" can.
You should give Nigeria the big expose on this that they deserve.
If you agree, please fave this comment and reply.
A place on the main will draw huge national attention to this disaster and the Nigerian people's plight.
' That was the Niger delta a few years ago, where, according to Nigerian academics, writers and environment groups, oil companies have acted with such impunity and recklessness that much of the region has been devastated by leaks.
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... '
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
I'd like to see more reporting on this in the very near future. Obviously it not being local to America, it is going to get less of a local voice. Plus, with the people its impacting, you usually get less of a voice and awareness with other type of people. Hopefully this is not one of those situations.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell
The US and Europe ignore itThe Deepwater Horizon disaster caused headlines around the world, yet the people who live in the Niger delta have had to live with environmental catastrophes for decades
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But Americans don't care. We just want our oil.
And we don't want to drill here on our own land and shores, we'd rather environmental risk be borne by others in other lands.
We'd rather the oil we consume is drilled on brown people's lands and shores.
Keep our own land and shores pristine ... to hell with the brown people.
And give us our damn oil.
This is the BEST article on the spill that I've read:
http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=2010no-accident-bp
Every gulf coast resident should read this!!!!
It touches on economic ecological and political failings and compares the bp spill to the ongoing situation with oil companies in the Niger delta. A must read. Forward this!!! We must fight back. This article is from
Louisiana, and makes connections to the Nigerian situation too. Specifically to the MEND resistance.