Deposits of Robertkiri field, in the central offshore area of Niger Delta, comprise a 4 km thick succession of Pliocene to Miocene non-marine and shallow marine deposits. A sequence stratigraphic framework for Robertkiri field strata was constructed by combining data from 20 well logs and a seismic volume spanning 1400 km2. Major sequences, hundreds of meters thick, define layers of reservoir and sealing strata formed during episodic progradation and retrogradation of deltaic shorelines. These deposits progress upward from fine-grained prodelta and deep water shales of the Akata Formation through paralic sandstone-shale units of the Agbada Formation and finally to sandy non-marine deposits of the Benin Formation. The Agbada Formation is divided into six third-order sequences starting at the first seismic reflection that can be mapped across the seismic volume. The Agbada Formation under Robertkiri field is complexly deformed across a succession of major, cuspate, offshore-dipping, normal faults, and associated antithetic faults and rollover anticlines within down-dropped blocks. Thickening of intervals between some reflections across major faults and away from the crests of adjacent rollover anticlines suggest syndepositional displacement. Relationships between major faults and the thickness of transparent seismic facies that comprise lower parts of the seismic record suggest faulting was associated with movement of undercompacted shales within the Akata and lower Agbada Formations. Robertkiri field is located along the proximal margin of the Coastal Swamp I depobelt, a subbasin within the Niger Delta clastic wedge formed by margin collapse into underlying undercompacted shale. Accommodation and sequence development in this setting is controlled by both structural faulting and sea level fluctuations. Upsection, sequences become thinner, more laterally uniform in thickness, less structurally deformed and contain less growth strata. Erosion along sequence boundaries becomes progressively shallower and broader, as accommodation under Robertkiri field declined and more sediment was bypassed basinward. Incisions along the base of older sequences (>100 m) is greater than 3rd order sea level falls reported to occur during the Miocene, which suggests that there were local areas of tectonic uplift within this dominantly extensional setting.

No description available.

No

This thesis explores the complex voices of militants, associated with the capture of oil resources in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The persistent violent conflict involving militant groups in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria is a major concern for many within the country and the international community. Understanding the conflict in the Niger Delta has triggered a wide range of discussions and debates among researchers, politicians and policy makers. However, these debates have overlooked the views of the militants, who are actively engaged in the conflict over resource governance in the region. Moreover the ideology of self-determination and resource control, which these militants use to legitimise their actions, seem to generate different meanings and labelling that tend to cloud an understandings of the conflict in the region. In this thesis, I adopt the theoretical assumptions of the New Social Movement literature and the epistemological views of the Interpretivist Social Constructionist approach to explore (a) what features shaped the emergence of militancy and its diverse forms (b) how do militias make sense of their role as militants? (c) how does the role of militias impact on the politics of oil governance in the Niger Delta? I argue that militia actions that appear to challenge the legitimacy and authority of the Nigerian state to control oil resources, are embedded in complex webs involving formal and informal interactions of political elites and militia leaders. From analysis of this research, key dominant concepts such as Identity, opportunism and competition, emerged to give insight as to why and how militancy has become significant in the region.

This dissertation clarifies ethnoarchaeology's role in post-positivist epistemology through both a critical re-examination of ethnoarchaeology's position within archaeology and a study of household vessel exchange and consumption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali. I argue that ethnoarchaeology meets its epistemic raison d'etre by achieving theoretical independence from archaeology's general theories. Independence is "built-in" to ethnoarchaeological study by focusing explicitly on the way material culture is used in daily practice; in particular, by re-embedding material culture in the "modern" contexts where it is used. Ceramic exchange in the Inland Niger Delta can not be understood apart from either the exchange and consumption of other industrial household vessels or the political economies women experience within patrilineal households. Household vessels are distinctly women's tools in the Delta and their consumption is an intimate part of the way women resist exploitation and the appropriation of their wealth within household political economies. The different roles vessels play are manifest in the distances these objects travel during consumption and are also materialized by their location within house compounds. Enamel vessels are used in displays of social and economic capital related to marriage that insulate women from exploitation; aluminum vessels are expensive items bought as part of marriage trousseaus; and plastics are relatively low value items given as small gifts or bought in local markets to insulate small amounts of wealth from appropriation. Pottery is relatively marginal within household economies; yet, potters rely on the income ceramic production creates. Thus, potters use extensive marketing strategies to sell their wares to a relatively disinterested clientele in order to meet their own obligations within patrilineal households and to buy the other types of household vessels that they desire. The findings of thi

Forty percent of women in the Niger Delta states in Nigeria were unemployed in 2015. Guided by acquired needs theory, this multiple case study was conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of how women in the Niger Delta states can acquire the requisite entrepreneurial knowledge to make decisions about becoming self-employed. Twenty women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta states who had knowledge and experience of entrepreneurship were selected to participate in providing data through a semistructured interview, field notes, and document review. Through Yin's 5-step data analysis process, member checking, and triangulation, the following key themes emerged: creativity and innovation, promoting learning and development on entrepreneurship, developing a business mindset, information technology, financial and economic literacy, mentoring the mentees, financial freedom, flexibility of time, adequate control, lack of adequate entrepreneurial training, unsupportive business environment, educational barriers, and shortage of funds and resources. The study findings may create awareness of how women entrepreneurs in the Niger Delta states can obtain knowledge and experience of entrepreneurship. This awareness may promote positive social change by supporting efforts to prepare women for employment, thereby reducing unemployment, improving the standard of living, and reducing poverty among women in Nigeria.

No description available.

This thesis is essentially an ethnographic examination of the instrumentalist and functionalist reading of African evangelical Christianity that is prevalent in a section of Western scholarship. Thus, it sets out to achieve two primary objectives: to investigate, describe and analyse Christian theological and socio-political consciousness within the context of oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria from Baptist and Pentecostal perspectives; and to use the data to test the veracity of the prevalent account on African evangelical Christianity regarding social witness. This account is succinctly represented by Paul Gifford who claims, among other things, that such Christianity lacks social responsibility and is anti-development and a-political. In order to achieve these objectives, the thesis adopts approaches from practical theology, particularly the burgeoning field of congregational studies, with its focus on qualitative research, and African Christian Theology, with its emphasis on grassroots theology, or ‘theology from below’. Also, achieving these objectives requires an analysis and description of Nigeria’s political economy of oil and conflict, which forms the secondary goal of the study. Consequently, two local Baptist churches and a Pentecostal congregation were selected on theological, geographical, and pragmatic grounds. The thesis is in two parts. Part I, comprising Chapters One to Three, gives the background to the study. Chapter One is the introductory chapter. In Chapter Two an analysis of Gifford’s account of African evangelical and ‘fundamentalist’ Christianity is provided. Chapter Three identifies and critiques the prevalent perspectives on oil and conflict in Nigeria. Part II covered in Chapters Four to Eight comprises the core ethnographic data from the case studies and their description and analysis. Chapter Four is essentially a thick description of the three congregations. In Chapter Five the first set of theological themes from the case studies – God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit – are discussed. Also included in the chapter is their theology of prayer. Chapter Six focuses on the theme of ecclesiology and also addresses their perspective on Christian socio-political role, as well as their theology of conversion. Chapter Seven offers a detailed analysis and description of their experiences, response and understanding of oil and conflict. Chapter Eight, which is the concluding chapter, sets the research findings against Gifford’s claims and concludes that most of them are at variance with the reality in the three congregations. Possible explanations for this discrepancy are offered, as well as some implications the study has for the scholarship on African Christianity and for the three churches. The chapter also includes the description and proposal of a contextual political theology for the Niger Delta.

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / Within the discourse of community development, the expression 'capacity development' stands out. Its common usage has somehow rendered it almost insignificant given the fact that those who use it tend to think of it in ways that hardly can be considered as having singular meaning. To be precise, there is no consensus as to its meanings; yet, it has not stopped its usage. The implication is that capacity development as a concept remains complex and has the tendency to erect difficulty in the attempt to operationalize it and apply it in evaluating development initiatives. However, this study presents an operational definition of capacity development in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria; levels of capacity development as well as dimensions used to evaluate on-going development projects/ policies in the region. The research method used to gather data was mixed. Quantitative method was more convenient due to the topography of the study area. However, qualitative method was introduced and utilized to guarantee the validity, authenticity and reliability of data collected. Mapping and an observation of government agencies/ organizations involved in capacity development in the study area (the Niger Delta region, by extension); questionnaires that spoke of practices supportive of capacity development in the region as well as resources available to Southern Ijaw LGA for capacity development; focused group discussions and in depth interviews that drew attention to factors affecting capacity development at all levels; individual, institutional and societal etc. these tools were means that efficiently helped in assessing the extent to which capacity development has been operationalized in post conflict Niger delta.

Meren field, located offshore Niger Delta, is one of the most prolific oil-producing fields in the Niger Delta. The upper Miocene D-07, D-08 and E-01 oil sands comprise a series of stacked hydrocarbon reservoirs in Block 2 of Meren field. These reservoir sandstones were deposited in offshore to upper shoreface environments. Seven depositional facies were identified in the studied interval, each with distinct lithology, sedimentary structures, trace fossils, and wire-line log character. The dominant lithofacies are (1) locally calcite-cemented highly-bioturbated, fine-grained sandstones, (middle to lower shoreface facies); (2) cross-bedded, fine- to medium-grained well-sorted sandstones (upper shoreface facies); (3) horizontal to sub-horizontal laminated, very-fine- to fine-grained sandstone (delta front facies); (4) massive very-fine- to fine-grained poorly-sorted sandstone (delta front facies); (5) muddy silt- to fine-grained wavy-bedded sandstone (lower shoreface facies); (6) very-fine- to fine-grained sandy mudstone (lower shoreface facies); and (7) massive, silty shales (offshore marine facies). Lithofacies have distinct mean petrophysical properties, although there is overlap in the range of values. The highest quality reservoir deposits are cross-bedded sands that were deposited in high-energy upper shoreface environments. Calcite cements in lower shoreface facies significantly reduce porosity and permeability. Integration of core and wire-line log data allowed porosity and permeability to be empirically determined from bulk density. The derived equation indicated that bulk density values could predict 80% of the variance in core porosity and permeability values. Three parasequence sets were interpreted, including one lower progradational and two upper retrogradational parasequence sets. The progradational parasequence set consists of upward-coarsening delta front to upper shoreface facies, whereas the upward-fining retrogradational parasequence sets are composed of middle to lower shoreface deposits overlain by offshore marine shales. The limited amount of core data and the relatively small area of investigation place serious constraints on stratigraphic interpretations. Two possible sequence stratigraphic interpretations are presented. The first interpretation suggests the deposits comprise a highstand systems tract overlain by a transgressive systems tract. A lowstand systems tract is restricted to an incised valley fill at the southeastern end of the study area. The alternate interpretation suggests the deposits comprise a falling stage systems tract overlain by transgressive systems tract.