The coastal delta of Nigeria consists of mile miles of swampy and wetlands. Below this sludge and the soil there is a rich deposit of petroleum that has been discovered so far. Every week new discoveries and new wealth are brought to primitive land filled with poverty and disorder. Within these areas of undetected wealth the simple fishermen and bad guys harmonize with easily corrupt youth militias and violent pirates, each cooperating with their opinions and stocks on the exploration and development of this wild country I have. Energy hungry countries including the United States are crying out the right to dig up here and as millions of more fields are discovered, it is estimated that millions of barrels of oil will increase.
30% of the world's oil reserves found worldwide in the past 5 years are located on the west coast of Africa and could not arrive at a better time for the United States. The United States imports most of the daily oil from Canada and Mexico. The Canadian Prudhoe Bay and other fields export approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil to the USA daily via the Transallacan pipeline. From the oil-rich deposit of the Gulf of Mexico, 1.6 million barrels arrived daily from the south. As these two oil supplies slowly drain, the supply of new Nigeria will increase importance. In Nigeria, the importance of US oil consumption importing about 1.1 million barrels per day is steadily rising. This 1.1 million barrel accounts for 10% of the US. The current management project will rise to about 25% of US oil consumption by the end of the decade.
For those suffering from poverty in southeastern Nigeria, what does this mean? For some villagers looking at colonies, exploration, industrialization and local fishermen, petroleum is considered poisonous if accidental outflows have a major impact on the ecosystem. Two runoffs to the court of the Koro River forever changed the life of the 1,000 small villages inhabiting the fish to survive. Oil spills have killed all fish and now the population has to look further for food and occupational living. Political motivation also causes infections in rich oil fields. Young militias are supporting one group or supporting another group. One such requirement was to quickly release the political prisoners of certain factions owned by the Nigerian government.
The United States and other countries carefully monitor the politics of Niger Delta and voluntarily wish to take advantage of all the means that make it possible to supply oil to prosperous countries in their own country. The ecology inherent in these areas and the ancient culture must be strong to survive.
