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Crude Oil November 16, 2018 01:30:43 AM

Nigeria: Gas Flaring Continues Scorching Niger Delta

Anil
Mathews
OilMonster Author
And this flaring is on the rise again, despite promises to reduce it.
Nigeria: Gas Flaring Continues Scorching Niger Delta

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): In Nigeria's Niger Delta, gas flares are killing crops, polluting water and damaging human health. The Nigerian government has promised to tackle the problem -- but new data shows flaring has even gone up.

Flames as tall as 10-storey buildings burn day and night in the village of Ebedei, in Nigeria's Niger Delta. But the heat from these fires is neither soft nor warm, it's fierce and prickly.

The constant noise sends wild animals fleeing, and people must shout to be heard over the roaring flames. Fields of crops, once green, have turned yellow or stopped growing entirely. The village no longer enjoys the respite of cool or darkness of night.

In the oil-rich Niger Delta of southern Nigeria, 2 million people live within 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of a gas flare. Below the flames, oil is being extracted. With the oil comes gas -- considered by the oil industry to be a dangerous waste product to burned off in a process called gas flaring.

And this flaring is on the rise again, despite promises to reduce it.

Benjamin Nwaiku lives beside the constant flame of a gas flare. In 2001, he retired from his job in the oil industry in Lagos and moved back to his hometown of Ebedei, to become a farmer and raise his seven children.

But in 2009, small Nigerian operator Platform Petroleum erected a flow station adjacent to his house to extract oil.

He quickly became concerned about the possible effects on his health and that of his children. "We are living under the shade of hazard because of this flaring," Nwaiku said.

His fears have a legitimate basis. Exposure to air pollutants released by gas flaring have been linked to cancer and lung damage, as well as neurological and reproductive problems.

The flaring has also affected his livelihood. He noticed his corn crops growing strangely -- shooting up, as he described it, "like an electric pole, without any fruit."

The gas flaring caused a rise in soil temperature and declining crop yields for Nwaiku and other farmers. "You plant, and before you know it, everything is dead," he said. "It is a disaster."

But some of the gas flare's impact is less tangible, and can't be measured in cash. Nwaiku said he missed the "total darkness" and quiet of rural night -- something the village hasn't experienced since the flame started burning.

During rainy season, the rainwater is visibly black. "It is not consumable ... no need for a microscope," Nwaiku said, inspecting the sample of water his neighbor collected.

The rainwater, he said, corroded his zinc roof. Holes appeared, and rotted the wood inside.

Nigeria has been exporting oil for more than 60 years, and the sector accounts for more than half of the government's income.

The Niger Delta is among the world's most oil-rich regions. Since the start of crude oil exploitation there in the 1950s, thousands of oil spills have fouled the delta, and helped fuel conflict in the region.

Although gas flaring was officially banned in 1984, the government has repeatedly failed to fulfill promises to end the practice.

London-based nonprofit On Our Radar tested whether the government's most recent vow to put an end to gas flaring by 2020 were realistic. It commissioned geospatial data expert Rory Hodgson to analyze to measure hotspots from gas flares using infrared data.

Courtesy: www.allafrica.com


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