Report criticizes Shell for "primitive" gas flaring in Nigerian oil fields

A report prepared by a Dutch group, Friends of the Earth, is highly critical of Royal Dutch Shell for its environmental record, particularly in Nigeria. Entitled "Royal Dutch Shell and its Sustainability Problems," the report identifies a dozen areas of concern, including the practice of "primitive gas flaring" in Nigeria, oil spills, the Canadian tar sands, fracking for unconventional gas, and drilling plans for the Arctic.

Regarding oil spills, the report states that spills occur in the Niger Delta as frequently as ten times a week. Amnesty International has concluded that oil companies in the delta are violating the human rights of the local inhabitants with respect to the right to food, the right to work, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to health and a healthy environment.

As a result of the frequent oil spills, people in the area are forced to drink, cook and wash in polluted water. The land they farm is being destroyed and the health problems they suffer from are "legion." According to AI, neither the government of Nigeria nor the oil companies are monitoring the human impacts of the oil pollution.

As for the practice of flaring the natural gas that is often mixed with oil reserves, the report is harsh in noting that Shell and the Nigerian government have no interest in separating and capturing the gas, a practice that is not technically challenging, preferring to let it burn. There are currently 100 continuously burning flares in the Niger Delta, some of which have been burning since the 1960s. In 2009, 15.2 billion cubic metres of gas were flared in Nigeria. The only country that flares more natural gas is Russia. The result of all this burning of hydrocarbons is that greenhouse gas emissions resulting from crude oil production in Nigeria are among the highest in the world. A study completed for the European Commission found that emissions from oil production were at between 16 and 21 grams of CO2 per megajoule; this compares with 4.8 grams per megajoule in oil produced for the European market.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, the gas flares destroy natural resources and local livelihoods and "adversely affect human development conditions."

When a federal high court judge in Benin ordered gas flaring stopped, calling it a "gross violation" of the human rights of the people affected, Shell appealed the case. The case is still pending.

Apart from the environmental and human toll, burning off all that gas has cost Nigeria, by some estimates, US$72 billion in revenues in the years since 1970.