The need for a sustainable development of natural resources has, in recent time taken centre stage in most natural resource rich countries. Environmental degradation resulting from the unsustainable development of petroleum resources has also resulted in the impoverishment of a large number of people. In countries like Nigeria, revenue accruing from energy and natural resources projects has become the mainstay of the nation's economy. However, the main beneficiaries of the wealth created by the exploration and production of petroleum are the state who owns all natural resources in line with the provisions of Nigerian law and the companies that exploit these resources. As a result, local landowners, do not directly benefit from petroleum exploitation even though they bear the direct consequences of petroleum exploitation. One consequence is the reduction of productive agricultural lands which has disrupted some of the traditional occupations of the people in the Niger Delta where the bulk of Nigeria's petroleum production takes place. It is this disruption that is the focus of this thesis. Despite Nigeria's support for the sustainable development of Nigeria's petroleum resources, environmental degradation resulting from the exploitation of petroleum has continued unabated. This raises a fundamental question as to the effectiveness of the regulatory regime governing petroleum activities in Nigeria. Using doctrinal and socio-legal methodology, this thesis explores the existing regulatory regime to ascertain if it is robust enough or effective to ensure the sustainable development of Nigeria's petroleum resources. It considers what impact, if any, does a failure in the regulatory regime have on the local population. Having established the failure of the legal regime, the study examines the consequences of the State's failure to sustainably develop its petroleum resources and consider if s Having established the failure of the legal regime, the study examines the consequences of the State's failure to sustainably develop its petroleum resources and consider if such failure has any impact on the stability and sustainability of petroleum projects themselves. Perhaps the most surprising finding to emerge from this study is that while the failure of the regulatory regime has negatively impacted the local population, the resulting social unrest or risks does not negatively impact the stability and sustainability of petroleum projects in real terms when compared with the cost of improving environmetal practices. In the search for solutions to address the failure of the existing regime and its consequences, the study examined relevant provisions of the new Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) intending to ascertain if there are significant improvements capable of ensuring the sustainable development of Nigeria's petroleum resources. It concludes that while the PIB contains some improvements on the existing regulatory regime, there are problematic provisions that require some attention if the nation is to achieve the goal of sustainable development of its petroleum resources.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:731626 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Omukoro, Dickson Ebikabowei |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=235313 |
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