Sustainable Exploration of Oil and Gas in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

It is now been over twenty years since the Brundtland Report drew the attention of the world to the need to re-examine our ways in the light of increasing use of resources with little or no concern for either the environment or future generation. Probably the world ignored the report thus leading to another call for a change of attitude five years later in what has come to be known today as the Earth Summit held at Rio de Janeiro. The summit produced the blue print for sustainable development called ‘Agenda 21’. Ten years later, the World Summit on Sustainable Development held at Johannesburg came as a reminder to challenge the world for deliberately ignoring the call to protect the environment and use resources sustainably. Nonetheless, this notion remains elusive in Niger delta area of Nigeria since it has deficiencies during oil and gas exploration which hold no good for sustainable development in the long term. It is against this background and realisation of the fact that oil and gas exploration activities affects human activities, environmental degradation e.t.c that various concept, studies is evolving to tackle these issues from the root and to give us a better understanding on how exploration activity in this region could be carried out with less or minimal impact to humans and the environment. Utilizing current literature and data this paper would address the concept of sustainable development (fact and fiction) how it benefit major stakeholders ranging from local community, companies and government, and x ray the legal and regulatory framework of oil and gas exploration in Nigeria, how it affect independent operator and government. It would also highlight the economic potential of gas how it could be harnessed and developed to play a frontier role to the Nigerian economy and finally concludes on necessary action to be taken with true and appropriate balance to achieve a sustainable state.