Oil Spills and Oil Pollution – Management and Contingency Planning for Oil Spill in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

While oil exploration is a necessary risk in a complex society, because of the enormous benefits to humanity, attention must be given to good industry practice and safety that will prevent or reduce the release of oil into the environment with attendant negative impacts. A better way of doing the business of oil exploration and production with minimal impact to the environment necessitated this work. Industry has invoked many operating and maintenance procedures to reduce accidents that lead to spills. The rate of spillage has decreased in the past 10 years, even with increased oil production, transportation, and consumption. Despite this, spill experts estimate that 30%-50% of oil spills are either directly or indirectly caused by human error, with 20%-40% of all spills caused by equipment failure or malfunction. Emerging spill risks include increased maritime activity in the waterways, deepwater exploration and development [1]. A careful study of the different causes of oil spills and the best methods to management the effects on the environment drove the objectives of this work.  Oil spills have many adverse effects on the environment. Clear effort for effective and prompt management of the spill incidents is a key success factor in reducing escalation of the attendant negative impacts on the environment by deploying a workable contingency plan suitable to the specific ecozones of interest. This work affirms that, a workable pre tested emergency response plan is the key to a successful spill incident management where every gap existing would have been identified and closed out before deployment in a real time incident.