AN ESSAY ON THE IMPACT OF OIL AND GAS DEVELOPMENT ON THE LANDSCAPE AND SURFACE IN NIGERIA
In Nigeria, the self-proclaimed ‘Giant of Africa’, the same scenario has been playing for the past fifty years to devastating effects especially in the Niger Delta, where oil is extracted in Nigeria. The entry of oil companies into the Niger Delta has no doubt brought great financial wealth. Despite these concerns, multinational oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region have failed to adopt best practice strategies for risks mitigation and comply with environmental regulations. This essay will focus on the impact on the impact of oil and gas development on the landscape, surface water and groundwater of the Niger Delta – while also assessing the various means of remediation in use.A total of about 1,182 exploration wells have been drilled to date in the delta basin, and about 400 oil and gas fields of varying sizes have been documented. Geologically, the Niger Delta petroleum systems consist of Lower Cretaceous, Upper Cretaceous–lower Paleocene and Tertiary. According to , a large portion of the world’s oil and gas reserves are in tertiary terrigenous passive continental margins – accounting for the significant hydrocarbon deposits Nigeria’s Niger Delta. The ecological zones can be broadly grouped into tropical rainforest in the northern part of the Delta and mangrove forest in the warm coastlines of the south.