environmental damage
Over the years Nigeria has been a landscape filled with oil fields and drilling machines and has become a victem of numerous environmental hazards. The most common problem environmentaly are oil spills, which 50% of are caused by pipeline errosion and 21% just durring drilling operations. Also, from 1976 to 1996 there were 4,835 oil spills in the Niger Delta River alone. The errosion has been the most prominent cause and it has been stated that the pipe lines are old and usually left uninspected, to which Shell has even attested that most their facilities were developed between the 1960's and early 1980's and have said that those facilites wouldn't meet the necessary standards under which they would construct today. Another cause is sabotage, in which individules siphon off oil from pipelines which can result in damage or destruction of pipelines. One notable impact has been on the mangrove forests, which are a major part of the vegetation of the Niger Delta and of which 5-10% have been destroyed.