title: Sustaining oil exploration and exploitation in the emerging context of
      sustainable development
title: the case of the Niger Delta
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Ejenavi, Onome
Publisher: name: Lancaster University
Year: 2018

description: Sustaining oil exploration and exploitation in Nigeria’s Niger-delta in
      harmony with sustainable development forms the topic and core of this
      thesis. This research considers a beleaguered Nigerian oil industry and
      the pervasive contemporary struggles to sustain lucrative oil production
      in the Niger-delta. Currently, Nigeria grapples with unrelenting and
      intractable challenges in its oil industry and apparently, a plausible
      means of alleviating the extensive negative impacts of untenable oil
      exploitation patterns in the Niger-delta have remained elusive.
      
      From the foregoing, the missing ingredient seems to be a dismal lack of
      sustainability endeared approaches to guarantee a green petroleum
      industry, economic growth and poverty eradication which remain vital
      considerations for a developing state like Nigeria. Apparently, the
      development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the
      interests, options and indeed, the needs of future generations, summed-up
      in the definition of sustainable development, appears to be a maxim with
      minimal recognition or import in the Niger-Delta.
      
      This Research is thus motivated by the constantly evolving, yet
      irrefutable implications arising from the concept of Sustainable
      Development and how it can be realistically applied to oil and gas
      exploitation. Undoubtedly, the pivotal principles of Sustainable
      development as enunciated in: Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration, the WSSD of
      2002 as well as the Rio+20 which have triggered extraordinary impact on
      the development policies, goals, projects and infrastructure of nations on
      a global scale ironically constitute the missing elements in Nigeria’s
      quest for sustaining oil production in the Niger-delta. Likewise, the
      awareness of this phenomenal concept and its application in petroleum
      industries of more developed states has awakened a considerable situation
      of unrest in the Niger-Delta region of Nigeria. This is because the
      immense petroleum resources in the Niger-delta have not translated into
      societal or economic wealth of the Niger-delta people. Undoubtedly, the
      vast network of petroleum resource development paraphernalia in the region
      which served to trigger tremendous economic growth in Nigeria for 6
      decades has simultaneously and adversely impacted all aspects of the
      economic, environmental and social life of the indigenes due to
      unsustainable petroleum exploitation practices.
      
      A stark contrast is thus evident when the Niger-delta is considered in
      this thesis alongside developed economies which have better aligned with
      international law provisions to achieve greener oil industries like the UK
      and Norway. A comparison with these jurisdictions is provoked by the more
      tangible impact of sustainable development principles in the petroleum
      regulations of these jurisdictions. More so, oil exploitation in these
      countries appear to be conducted more harmoniously with nature, whilst
      depicting a tapestry of multifarious synergies interwoven and intersecting
      across the sustainable development goals.
      
      Furthermore, an analysis of the Nigerian petroleum regulatory framework
      and policies pinpoints the loopholes which serve to undermine a
      sustainable or green oil industry in the Niger-delta, inadvertently
      engendering environmental degradation and poverty. Notwithstanding this
      array of negative externalities accruing from unsustainable oil
      exploitation in the Niger-delta, this research proposes optimism and
      insight regarding the way forward. The research properly endorses
      sustainable development of oil and gas resources to chart an acceptable
      course from the petroleum induced dilemma in the Niger-delta, whilst
      prompting crucial policy and regulatory reforms to sustain and “green” oil
      exploration and exploitation in Nigeria.