Not at all. Whoever does the drilling there, the safety record is worse, so moving more production to there and to other similar places, is likely to increase the number of spills and amount spilled. The fact that you have western companies involved is probably the main reason its spilling at only 4 times the rate (twice as much with half as much oil produced), but they can't completely over come the lower level of infrastructure, and the local violence vandalism and theft.
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"...As many as 100,000 barrels of crude oil are being stolen or smuggled from Nigeria every day, representing 5 per cent of national production, according to estimates from Shell.
The Ango-Dutch oil group plans to lend Nigeria more than $3 billion (£2.1 billion) in bridging loans to maintain investment and keep production flowing despite political turbulence.
Shell said yesterday that the theft of oil in Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil-producing country, ranged from 20,000 to 100,000 barrels per day but may have peaked at more than this..."
business.timesonline.co.uk |
