Groundwater Degradation in Nigeria's Niger Delta: When Oil Theft and Illegal Bunkering Take Center Stage

Rising incidents of oil theft in Nigeria's Niger Delta come at a significant environmental and groundwater cost. While several estimates have been made regarding the cost to the national economy in lost revenue and pipeline repair, no one has calculated the cost to the environment, groundwater resources, and the livelihood of the residents of the Niger Delta. No one has ever calculated the cost of restoring the environment, and treating as well as protecting the water resources and the marine ecosystem. But extrapolating from the cost of aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico following the BP Gulf Coast spill of 2010, the cost to Nigeria's Niger Delta will amount to more than one trillion dollars. 2012 had an unprecedented level in environmental and groundwater degradation in Nigeria's Niger Delta due to oil theft and spillage; Shell Nigeria experienced 137 spills as a result of sabotage, pipeline vandalization, and theft, with the volume of oil lost amounting to 3.3 thousand tons. Nigeria puts the volume of oil stolen significantly above the 150,000 barrel a day estimate given by the United Nations. It is impossible to estimate the exact figures, because a well-financed and highly organized criminal enterprise exists on a phenomenal scale. Most of the stolen oil does not end on being deposited on the groundwater systems alone; rather it ends up in ocean-going tankers that transport it to refineries in other parts of West Africa, Europe, and beyond. A conservative waste/leakage/spill rate of 10%, which amounts to a crude oil spill rate of 40,000 barrels per day amounting to a cumulative annual spill volume of about 14.4 million barrels of crude oil, spilled into Niger Delta's environment and groundwater as a result of the crude oil theft enterprise and has left the region more devastated than ever before.