International Law and the Prevention and Control of Oil and Gas Pollution

Abstract

The threat of environmental problem concerns the whole world at the global level. This is because the global environment is one while the national boundaries, which have demarcated the world into distinct nations, are manmade. The features of the world’s environment, ie land, air and water, and their susceptibilities are no respecter of those national boundaries made by man in his enterprise of building sovereign States. The implication of the exploitation of oil in both onshore and offshore locations is that pollution may occur in such a way as to affect shared water resources beyond national boundaries. When this happens, it becomes an international law concern. This is why the world environment has come to be regarded as common resource. There are international conventions on the environment relevant to the control of oil and gas pollution, to which Nigeria is a signatory. The researcher aims at appraising the usefulness of these conventions in the control of oil and gas pollution in Nigeria. The study depicts that the applicability of these conventions in Nigeria is limited by the fact that they are not binding on Nigerian courts but merely persuasive in that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 excludes the enforceability of such Conventions in Nigeria except they have been domesticated as national laws. The study makes a case for enforceability and bindingness of international conventions in Nigeria by their being enacted  as Acts of the National Assembly in line with the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, as amended.