Studies indicate that Nigeria has of about 159 functional oil fields and 1481 wells operating in the coastal Niger Delta Basin in the Niger Delta region. Most of these fields are small and scattered 11. Petroleum products in Nigeria are mainly transported through network of petroleum pipelines scattered mostly in the Niger Delta region, and across Nigeria. Nigeria’s crude oil is categorized mostly as “light” and “sweet”, as the oil is largely sulphur-free. Currently, India is the largest importer of crude oil from Nigeria. Crude oil from Nigeria is being exported to other countries via six export terminals in the country. All six terminals operate at different capacities. Two of these terminals are being operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), while the other four are being operated by Texaco, Mobil and Agip. SPDC operates the Forcados and Bonny terminals that have a combined storage capacity of 13 million barrels (2,100,000 m3) of crude oil. Qua Iboe Terminal in Akwa Ibom state is being operated by Mobil, while Chevron controls the Escravos Terminal located in Delta State with a storage capacity of 3.6 million barrels (570,000 m3). Agip operates the Brass Terminal in Brass which has a storage capacity of 3,558,000 barrels (565,700 m3). And Pennington Terminal is being operated by Texaco 12.
Oil spills
It is estimated that in the past five decades about 9 million-13 million (1.5 million tons) of oil has been spilled into the Niger Delta ecosystem 13. Araromi in the present Ondo state was the first place to experience oil spill in Nigeria. in 1908 19. Nigeria recorded a major spill in July 1979 when the Forcados tank 6 Terminal in Delta state, spilled 570,000 barrels of oil into the Forcados estuary polluting the ecosystem 19 and 21. An estimate 421,000 barrels of oil was blown into the ocean from January 17th to January 30th 1980 from an oil well called Funiwa in the delta, causing the devastation of about 863 acres of mangrove forest within six miles of the shore 8, 21 and 22. Another major oil spillage was the Ogada-Brass pipeline oil spillage near Etiama Nembe in February 1995 which spilled approximately 24,000 barrels of oil, the spilled oil flooded over freshwater swamp forest and into the brackish water mangrove swamp. In 2008 alone it was reported by Amnesty International that a total of over 100,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled in Bode community even though Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) put the figure at just 1600 barrels 2. Again, Amnesty International argued that even though figures on the website of SPDC had shown that between 2007 and 2014, an estimated 1693 incidences of spill occurred and more than 350,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the region, the actual volume of crude spilled was underestimated 2. The majority of the spill incidences in the Niger Delta occur on land, swamp, offshore, farmland, etc. and cause severe hardship to the inhabitants 13, 14, 15, and 20.