The failure of the effort to "top kill" the Deepwater Horizon oil well blowout leaves us facing a continuation of a fantastic quanty of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico environment, already estimated at over a half million tons. Ixtoc 1 off Mexico in the Gulf of Mexico leaked that much during 1979 and early 1980. The Exxon Valdez oil spill leaked about 37,000 tonnes (10.8 million gallons) off Alaska's coast;up to 1.5 million tonnes may have leaked into the Persian Gulf in 1991 during the 1st Gulf War.
from the Guardian:
The farther we travelled, the more nauseous it became. Soon we were swimming in pools of light Nigerian crude, the best-quality oil in the world. One of the many hundreds of 40-year-old pipelines that crisscross the Niger delta had corroded and spewed oil for several months...
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...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."
The Niger delta in Nigeria supplies the US with 40% of our crude oil. In 2006, it was calculated that up to 1.5 million metric tons of oil spilled in the Niger Delta. The well publicized efforts of the US Government and BP in trying to stop the Deepwater Horizon leak have no counterpart in Nigeria.
...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
Of course, having an ongoing armed conflict in the Niger Delta region due to tensions between foreign oil corporations and minority ethnic groups add to the pressures in the region.
On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.
Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. "We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old," said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.
This point was backed by Williams Mkpa, a community leader in Ibeno: "Oil companies do not value our life; they want us to all die. In the past two years, we have experienced 10 oil spills and fishermen can no longer sustain their families. It is not tolerable."
The "top kill" failure may have left the US and BP with few options other than a potential relief well solution. The relief well drilled after the Ixtoc 1 blowout failed to significantly impact the leaking well for several months after it was drilled. There are no guarantees in this business. The states with the 2nd and 3rd largest coastlines, after Alaska, Florida and Louisiana have much to consider...
Worse may be to come. One industry insider, who asked not to be named, said: "Major spills are likely to increase in the coming years as the industry strives to extract oil from increasingly remote and difficult terrains. Future supplies will be offshore, deeper and harder to work. When things go wrong, it will be harder to respond."
Needless to say, the miles of already spoiled coastline, the impacted lives of those dependent on the Gulf waters for their livlihood and a worried United States population should take some measure of relief from the focus of the media, the government and the citizenry on the continuing crisis. Nigerian residents have no such luck.
Nnimo Bassey, Nigerian head of Friends of the Earth International:
"It is clear that BP has been blocking progressive legislation, both in the US and here. In Nigeria, they have been living above the law. They are now clearly a danger to the planet. The dangers of this happening again and again are high. They must be taken to the international court of justice."