In 2016, Nigeria reclaimed its position as Africa’s largest oil producer and remains one of the countries with the largest oil reserves in the world, including in the deepwater off the Nigerian coast.
Oil exploitation in Nigeria goes back a long way. Shell first discovered oil in the Niger Delta region in the mid 1950s with production starting in 1958.
Since then, the Niger Delta has been associated with industrial oil exploitation. It was put on the map when two major oil spills by oil giant Shell in 2008 and 2009 caused extensive pollution, ravaged the environment and destroyed the livelihoods of the local fishing and farming communities. To this day, the clean-up has not been completed.
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