Nigerian maritime administration : its role in marine environmental protection : a case study on the Escravos Oil Terminal, Niger delta

The dissertation is an attempt to examine the Nigerian oil industry and its impact on the environment. The world pre occupation in recent years, with green house gas emission and climatic changes has tended to over shadow an equally important problem, oil pollution either land based or marine. Oil spills have an equally devastating impact on the environment, especially in developing countries which have little or no capacity to deal with this problem. Thus the focal point of this paper is to analyse the Nigerian oil sector and the environmental impact of its activities. This involves identifying sectors within the oil industry that have the most impact on the enviromnent. Oil terminals as an important component of the oil industry is analysed in greater detail, its operational structure and impact on the environment is analysed. Additionally a comparative analysis is made on oil terminal operation in the in the United States of America and Malaysia, and type of regulatory and safety mechanism in place to prevent oil spills. The dissertation also looks at the function and frame work of the various organisations involved in pollution prevention and control, their strength and weakness. Finally the paper makes recommendation on ways through which the oil industry could reduce their operational impact on the environment and operate in a more enviromnental friendly manner. The recommendation entails a combination of legal, political and technical instruments to tackle the above problem.