Oil Exploitation and Compliance with International Environmental Standards: The Case of Double Standards in the Niger Delta of Nigeria

Abstract

The need for provision and sustenance of energy around the world has necessitated the exploitation of crude oil in different parts of the globe. However, the technology for this exercise so far, is limited to corporations from the technologically advanced countries which operate in the oil-rich areas. The corporations otherwise called multinational corporations (MNCs) have been found to employ discriminatory operational standards in countries of their operation as against what obtains in their countries of origin, particularly, where such are developing countries, lacking in requisite technology to tap their own resources. The paper examines some of the environmentally destructive methods of oil exploration adopted by the oil MNCs in developing countries, like Nigeria which may not be acceptable in developed countries where these companies are based. It argues that while the oil MNCs freely pollute and degrade the environment in the developing countries with little or no attention paid to the local inhabitants and the eco-system, the reverse is always the case in developed countries, as well as their home countries where they operate. This paper examines the practice of double standards by oil MNCs in Nigeria and the implications on the local inhabitants. It seeks for the elimination of unequal enforcement of international environmental standards and disparate treatment of local populations from the oil producing areas of Nigeria.

Keywords: Environment, degradation, MNCs, indigenous people, international standards