Corporate Civil Liability and Compensation Regime for Environmental Pollution in the Niger Delta

Petroleum activity has been highly instrumental in yielding economic rewards for resource producing countries and supplying a vital energy source, but it also has the potential to cause profound environmental impacts. Oil pollution forms part of the general malaise of environmental pollution. The disastrous effect of oil pollution is now beyond question. The restive situation in the Niger Delta can be blamed on heinous environmental crimes and breach of good environmental management by multinational oil companies. Over the past decades, the Niger Delta terrain has been overrun through deliberate over-exploitation carried out in total disregard of the basic principles of sustainable environmental management. The impact of the oil spill includes habitat degradation, pollution from gas flaring and these are cumulative and have acted synergistically with other environmental stresses to impair ecosystems and severely compromise human livelihoods and health. These unfortunate incidents make the victims individuals and host community, landowners, pond owners and other property owners to demand compensation and has progressively pushed the Niger Delta to the brink of ecological disaster. Despite international treaties, declarations, industry best practices and the recognition of their application in the absence of adequate environmental laws and enforcement in developing countries such as Nigeria, environmental pollution from oil and gas activities continue unabated. This paper sets out to examine the corporate civil liability and compensation regime for environmental pollution in the Niger Delta. It will focus on legislation covering pollution in the Niger Delta Region occasioned by oil and gas activities particularly, the basis of environmental policy and legislation in Nigeria and including the concept of corporate social responsibility, its role in the Niger Delta particularly considering the host communities' needs, and more significantly, whether its application erodes conformity with legal requirements and standards