In the referenced "The Guardian" article, Nigeria's 600+ oil fields supply about 40% of all crude the U.S. imports. What is the 'spill status' like in Nigeria, in specific, the Niger Delta? The article spells it out.
The full article, dated, May 30 is here: (the article appears written by an editor and reporter from "The Observer."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
Some article highlights are, regarding a recent trip to an oil spill in the Delta, to the Nigerian village of Otuegwe, and the tracing of history of oil spills in the Delta region of Nigeria:
Forest and farmland were now covered in a sheen of greasy oil. Drinking wells were polluted and people were distraught. No one knew how much oil had leaked. "We lost our nets, huts and fishing pots," said Chief Promise, village leader of Otuegwe and our guide. "This is where we fished and farmed. We have lost our forest. We told Shell of the spill within days, but they did nothing for six months.
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, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP's Deepwater Horizon rig last month.
If this Gulf accident had happened in Nigeria, neither the government nor the company would have paid much attention," said the writer Ben Ikari, a member of the Ogoni people. "This kind of spill happens all the time in the delta.
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So, where are we headed? The way of Nigeria?