Oil, environment, and insecurity: a case study of oil production-related environmental insecurity in Nigeria's Niger Delta region

Oil provides huge economic benefits to oil companies and oil-producing countries however, oil production can have multiple adverse effects on the environment which in turn can affect people's lives. This problem appears to be most severe in oil-producing developing countries. In Nigeria, oil production has resulted in serious environmental damage and violent conflicts (which I refer to as environmental insecurity ). Why? In this research, I investigated the causal link between oil production and environmental insecurity in the Niger Delta using Thomas Homer-Dixon's well-known environmental security model. Data for use with the model derives from textual material and interviews. My findings and synthesis of results from the literature show that adverse environmental impacts, together with regulatory failure by the Nigerian government and exploitative practices by oil companies, led to a decrease in the supply of natural resources in the region (land, crops, forests, freshwater, fishing waters and fish), which in turn led to constrained economic productivity that, in some instances, precipitated violent conflict in the Niger Delta. Corruption and lack of enforcement were predominant factors explaining the failure of intervention measures designed to prevent violent conflict. --Leaf ii.