Oil spillage And Gas Flaring I n Niger Delta Region CHAPTER ONE Introduction. 1.1 Overview Nigeria has Africa’s largest reserves of oil and gas within its borders and most of these resources exist in the Niger Delta and on the continental shelf of the country. Oil extraction in the Niger Delta has been going on since the 1950s and Nigeria exports around 15 million tonnes of oil every day, ranking one of the top 15 exporters in 2009 (CIA 2012 ). The reserve of crude oil in Nigeria is estimated to be 270 billion tonnes, making it one of the top 10 largest reserves in the world in 2011 (CIA 2012 ). Oil exports accounts for 95 % of the foreign exchange earnings and 80 % of the budgetary revenues. The quality of the extracted oil is considered good, as it has low content of sulfur (0.14%) and a high content of lighter fractions (EIR 2005 ) . The Niger River has a total length of about 4100 km and is the th
