Individual Research Projects(IRP)

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Browsing Individual Research Projects(IRP) by Author "ABAM, DATORU PROMISE SIMEON"

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    (1994-11-30) ABAM, DATORU PROMISE SIMEON
    Crude oil has dominated Nigeria's revenue base for over three decades, accounting for over 90 percent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings. Energy Intelligence has predicted that crude oil would continue to dominate the global energy scenario as a strategic and highly sourced fossil mineral, well into the next century. The situation in Nigeria is not likely to be different. This makes the sustenance of crude oil production of paramount necessity for Nigeria's economic survival. In recent times, crude oil exploitation has generated intense instabilities in the oil producing environments, to the point of severely restricting Nigeria's capacity to maximise revenue earnings from this all important commodity. The instabilities are in various forms of engineered civil activities which frequently disrupt crude oil production. This study is prompted by the need to find the root causes of these instabilities and provide practicable solutions that would stabilise this vital sector of Nigeria's economy. The study examined various aspects of crude oil exploitation in Nigeria, the environmental problems generated by the production processes and how these have been addressed over the years by the Federal Government and Oil Companies, in relation to the integrity of the ecosystem and socio-economic well-being of the oil producing communities. The finding is that neither the communities nor the ecosystem have been given the desired attention in terms of a fair share of the oil revenues. This is the root cause of the instabilities. A number of factors are responsible for this. These are: (i) weaknesses in the governmental system (ii) loopholes in the (iii) petroleum laws (iii) lack of political will (iv) structural inadequacies in the implementation Agences (v) lopsided operation of the federal structure (vi) over centralisation of political power. Using the concept of environmental harmonisation the study concludes that a permanent stability can be achieved, given certain requirements. These are: (a) fundamental review of the petroleum laws and their implementation mechanisms to make them relevant to the realities on the ground. (b) restructuring the Oil Minerial Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) and increasing the Derivation Fund to 25 percent to meet the development aspirations of the oil producing communities. (c) granting special dispensations to oil producing communities to encourage their participation in the oil business. (d) commissioning a development master plan for oil producing areas and rehabilitation of the eco-system. (e) operating a truely federal system which guarantees equality of States and autonomy of each State, to facilitate development of its resources. This would also accelerate diversification of the national economy. These requirements form the main body of the recommendations contained in this study.