Stakeholder Democracy Network (SDN), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation based in the Niger-Delta, has released a shocking report which indicates that petrol and diesel produced by illegal refineries were of far better quality and less toxic to humans and the environment than those imported from Europe.
SDN reckoned that Shell, Exxon, Chevron and other major oil companies extract and export up to 2 million barrels a day of high quality, low sulphur Bonny Light crude from the Niger Delta. But very little of the oil is refined in Nigeria because the local refineries are in a comatose state. Consequently, international dealers export to Nigeria around 900,000 tonnes a year of low-grade, ‘dirty’ fuel, made in Dutch, Belgian and other European refineries, and hundreds of small-scale artisanal refineries produce large quantities of illegal fuel from oil stolen from the network of oil pipelines that criss-cross the Niger Delta.
The net result, SDN noted, is that Nigeria has become frighteningly notorious for being one of the worst air polluted countries in the world, with dense clouds of choking soot hanging over gridlocked cities.
The worrisome development has led to a rise in serious health conditions, aside from damaging many vehicles.
The extreme toxicity of fuel legally imported from Europe surprised researchers who took samples of diesel sold in government-licensed filling stations in Port Harcourt and Lagos. They found that on average the fuel exceeded EU pollution limits by as much as 204 times, and by 43 times the level for gasoline.
Laboratory analysis also showed that the black market fuel was highly polluting but of a higher quality than the imported diesel and gasoline. The average illicit diesel tested exceeded the level of EU sulphur standards 152 times, and 40 times the level for gasoline.
Florence Kayemba, SDN Programme Manager, said; ‘Our research suggests that Nigeria is having dirty fuel dumped on it that cannot be sold to other countries with higher and better-implemented standards. The situation is so bad that the average diesel sampled are of an even lower quality than that produced by artisanal refining camps in the creeks of the Niger Delta.’
With more than 11 million mostly old cars imported from Europe and Japan on the roads and hundreds of thousands of inefficient generators used by households and businesses for electricity, Nigeria ranks fourth in the world for deaths caused by air pollution. It has been estimated that 114,000 people die prematurely from air pollution each year.
The group wants the development urgently looked into since it has both health and environmental implications.
