monday 20th june 2005
press release
communities sue oil companies to stop
nigerian gas flaring
footage and photographs available - see
below
LAGOS (NIGERIA) / BRUSSELS (BELGIUM) 20th
June 2005 -- Communities from across the
Niger Delta, with the support of
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria (ERA), have today filed a legal
action against the Nigerian government, the
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and
the Shell, Exxon, Chevron, Total and Agip
joint venture companies to stop gas
flaring.
More gas is flared in Nigeria than
anywhere else in the world, and flaring in
the country has contributed more greenhouse
gas emissions than all other sources in
sub-Saharan Africa combined according to the
World Bank.
The cocktail of toxic substances which has
been emitted in the flares for over 40 years,
including benzene and particulates, has
exposed Niger Delta communities to severe
health risks and property damage, in
violation of their human rights.
Moreover, flaring has been in general
prohibited under environmental regulations
since 1984, unless a ministerial consent has
been lawfully issued and conditions are
complied with. Despite requests by ERA, no
consents or conditions have been disclosed by
any of the companies.
The annual financial loss to Nigeria from
gas flared has been put at about US $2.5
billion, while about two-thirds of the
population are estimated by the World Bank to
live on less than US $1 a day.
The filing of the case is accompanied by
the publication today of a 36-page report
entitled "Gas Flaring in Nigeria: A human
rights, environmental and economic
monstrosity", written by the Climate Justice
Programme and Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria.
The report is available here:
www.climatelaw.org/gas.flaring/report/gas.flaring.in.nigeria.html
An online version of the report is available
here:
www.climatelaw.org/gas.flaring/report
The report's Executive Summary in English,
French and Italian is available online here:
English:
http://www.foei.org/publications/climate/gasnigeria.html
French:
http://www.foei.org/fr/publications/climate/gasnigeria.html
A 2-page Fact Sheet on Nigerian Gas
Flaring is set out at the end of this press
release.
Comrade Che Ibegwura from Erema, an Egi
community in Rivers State said:
"For many years, we have been living with
continuous flaring of gas from
TotalFinaElf. Our farmlands have been
polluted. We labour hard to plant but
little comes out. Our roofs are corroded.
Our air is polluted. Our children are sick.
Even the rainwater we drink is contaminated
with black soot from the gas flares. We
cannot continue with this suffering. We
need to take legal action to protect
ourselves, our children and our future."
Tare Dadiowei from Gbarain community in
Bayelsa State commented:
"It is our hope that the laws of Nigeria
will protect us from the continuous
violations of our human rights and
destruction of our livelihood by Shell.
While Shell makes cheap excuses for the
continuing flaring of gas in our
communities, we bear the huge costs with
our contaminated air and soil, diseases and
death."
Reverend Nnimmo Bassey, Executive Director
of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria, described the filing of the
legal case as:
"a major step in our collective effort as
citizens of Nigeria to make oil and gas
corporations and the government behave
responsibly. For too long we have witnessed
the atrocious flaring of associated gas by
profiteering oil corporations that hold the
people in utmost contempt. We are calling
on the law to defend our impoverished
citizens".
Peter Roderick, co-Director of the Climate
Justice Programme said:
"As the G8 prepares to discuss climate
change and Africa, Nigerian gas flaring
provides them with an outrageous example of
the problems. It is a shameful and
indefensible stain on the reputation of
western oil companies. The appalling waste
of greenhouse gases in one of the world
poorest countries is a violation of the
human rights of those subjected to the
flaring. It is astonishing that it
continues on such a scale when Nigerian
regulations have prohibited the practice in
general since 1984."
Paul de Clerck, Coordinator of the Friends
of the Earth International Corporate campaign
said: "
Everyone agrees that gas flaring should
stop because it is bad for people's health
and the environment. Nevertheless, the oil
companies continue to prolong it. Last
month Shell announced that it would not
abide by its commitment to end gas flaring
by 2008. Continuing to ruin people's life
for more years is totally unacceptable."
Photographs of the flaring are also freely
downloadable, without watermarks, from these
sites:
http://www.idspicturedesk.com/picturedesk/I?k=icn85ZN347-49423&u;=aGO
http://www.idspicturedesk.com/picturedesk/I?k=Om4Noo55XK-66585&u;=yFf
contacts:
IN NIGERIA, Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria:
Asume Osuoka (Port Harcourt)
+234 84 236365
oilwatch@phca.linkserve.com
IN GERMANY, Climate Justice Programme:
Roda Verheyen, co-Director
+ 49 179 465 2979
rodaverheyen@tiscali.de
IN BELGIUM, Friends of the Earth
International:
Paul de Clerck
+ 32 2 542 6107
paul@milieudefensie.nl
IN THE UK, Friends of the Earth, England,
Wales and Northern Ireland in London
Alison Dilworth
+ 44 20 7566 4084 (office)
+ 44 7952 993283 (mobile)
alisond@foe.co.uk
IN THE NETHERLANDS, Milieudefensie,
Friends of the Earth Netherlands
Anne van Schaik
+ 31 20 550 7387
anne.van.schaik@milieudefensie.nl
IN THE USA, Friends of the Earth USA,
Washington DC
Michelle Medeiros
+ 1 202 222 0717 (office)
+ 1 202 321 1510 (mobile)
MMedeiros@foe.org
The action was filed this morning 20th
June 2005 in the Federal High Court of
Nigeria in Benin City. The communities
bringing the action include Rumuekpe,
Akala-Olu, Erema and Idama (Rivers State);
Ewherekan (Delta State); EKET (Akwa Ibom
State) and Imiringi and Gbarain (Bayelsa
State).
Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the
Earth Nigeria is dedicated to the defence of
human ecosystems in terms of human rights,
and to the promotion of environmentally
responsible governmental, commercial,
community and individual practice in Nigeria
through the empowerment of local people:
www.eraction.org
The Climate Justice Programme is an
initiative hosted by Friends of the Earth
International. It aims to encourage and
support the enforcement of the law
internationally to combat climate change.
Over 70 organisations and lawyers are
signatories to its Statement of Support,
including Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace,
WWF and organizations based in developing
countries:
www.climatelaw.org
nigerian gas flaring- fact sheet
1. How much gas is flared in Nigeria?
More gas is flared in Nigeria than
anywhere else in the world. The gas industry
statistics publisher, Cedigaz, indicates that
Nigeria accounted for 19.79% of global
flaring in 2001 (latest year), more than the
second (Iran) and third (Indonesia) countries
combined: see Statistical Leaflet available
here:
www.cedigaz.org
The UNDP/World Bank in 2004 estimated
Nigerian flaring at close to 2.5 billion
cubic feet daily (over 70 million cubic
metres daily), amounting to about 70 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint
UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management
Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004),
paragraph 2.5.
2. Some of the effects of flaring in
Nigeria
The cocktail of toxic substances which has
been emitted in the flares for over 40 years,
including benzene and particulates, has
exposed Niger Delta communities to health
risks and property damage, in violation of
their human rights. The flares affect their
livelihood and expose them to an increased
risk of premature deaths, child respiratory
illnesses, asthma and cancer, as well as acid
rain. For example, conservative assumptions
using World Bank information on the adverse
effect of particulates, suggests that gas
flaring from just one part of the Niger Delta
(Bayelsa State) would likely cause annually
49 premature deaths, 4,960 respiratory
illnesses among children and 120, asthma
attacks.
This exposure violates Nigerian
constitutional guarantees, for example, of
the fundamental rights to life (Article 33)
and to dignity (Article 34). It also violates
the rights guaranteed in the African Charter
on Human and Peoples' Rights, for example, of
every individual to enjoy the best attainable
state of physical and mental health (Article
16) and of all peoples to a general
satisfactory environment favourable to their
development (Article 24).
Flaring in the country "has contributed
more greenhouse gas emissions than all other
sources in sub-Saharan Africa combined"
according to the World Bank.
Memorandum of the President of the
International Development Association and the
International Finance Corporation to the
Executive Directors on an Interim Strategy
Update for the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
February 13, 2002, Report No. 23633-UNI,
paragraph 15.
The UNDP/World Bank figure of 70 million
tonnes of carbon dioxide would have made
Nigeria the world's 42nd biggest emitter of
carbon dioxide from fossil fuel and cement
manufacture in 2000, ahead of Portugal,
Switzerland, Sweden and Norway. This ramking
is obtained from the World Resources
Institute's Climate Analysis Indicators Tool,
available here:
http://cait.wri.org
3. What's the cost of gas flaring in
Nigeria?
The annual financial loss to Nigeria from
gas flared has been put at about US $2.5
billion: "[F]laring represents a significant
economic loss (lost opportunity value
estimated at some US$2.5 billion, based on
LNG values)."
Strategic Gas Plan for Nigeria, Joint
UNDP/World Bank Energy Sector Management
Assistance Programme (ESMAP) (February 2004),
page 13, paragraph 1.13.
At the same time, about two-thirds of the
population are estimated by the World Bank to
live on less than US $1 a day:
"GNP per capita, at about US$320, is below
the level at independence forty years ago and
below the US$370 that it gained in 1985.
About 66 percent of the population now falls
below the poverty line of roughly one U.S.
dollar a day, compared to 43 percent in
1985."
World Bank Nigeria Country Briefing, April
2005, available here:
web.worldbank.org
4. What do the regulations say?
Apart from human rights law, flaring has
been in general prohibited under
environmental regulations since 1st January
1984, unless a ministerial consent has been
lawfully issued and conditions are complied
with. Under section 3 of the Associated Gas
Reinjection Act 1979, a consent can only be
issued if the Minister is satisfied that
utilization or reinjection is not appropriate
or feasible in a particular field or fields.
If a consent is issued, the Minister is
empowered to require the companies to pay a
sum (reported in 2002 to be 10 Naira per
million cubic feet (about 4 UK pence or 7 US
cents), and under the Associated Gas
Re-injection (Continued Flaring of Gas)
Regulations 1984 certain conditions must be
met. Despite requests by Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, no
consents or conditions have been disclosed by
any of the companies.
Fact Sheet produced by the Climate Justice
Programme and Environmental Rights
Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria, June
2005
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