Nigeria is having dirty fuel dumped on it that cannot be sold to other countries with higher and better implemented standards, a new report by an international resource watchdog group has said.
Stakeholder Democracy Network said in the report that black-market fuel made from stolen oil in rudimentary “bush” refineries hidden deep in the creeks and swamps of the Niger Delta was less polluting than the highly toxic diesel and petrol that Europe exports to Nigeria
International dealers export to Nigeria around 900,000 tonnes a year of low-grade, “dirty” fuel, made in Dutch, Belgian and other European refineries, according to the report.
SDN said the net result “is that Nigeria has some of the worst air pollution in the world, with dense clouds of choking soot hanging over gridlocked cities leading to a rise in serious health conditions as well as damaged vehicles.”
Researchers found that on average the fuel imported from Europe exceeded EU pollution limits by as much as 204 times, and by 43 times the level for gasoline.
“Our research suggests that Nigeria is having dirty fuel dumped on it that cannot be sold to other countries with higher and better implemented standards. The situation is so bad that the average diesels sampled are of an even lower quality that that produced by artisanal refining camps in the creeks of the Niger delta,” said the Programme manager, SDN, Florence Kayemba,
Laboratory analysis also showed that the black market fuel was highly polluting but of a higher quality than the imported diesel and gasoline. The average “unofficial” diesel tested exceeded the level of EU sulphur standards 152 times, and 40 times the level for gasoline.
More than half of developing countries, mainly in Africa and Latin America, still use high-sulphur fuels which have long been illegal to burn in western countries.
Refineries in Europe are allowed to make the fuel if countries agree to accept it.
The SDN report, part-funded by the UK Foreign Office’s anti-corruption conflict, stability and security fund, calculates that around half the air pollution in Port Harcourt, a city of more than three million people, comes from the burning of official and unofficial fuel.
According to SDN, Levels of particulate matter in Port Harcourt and Lagos are 20 per cent worse than Delhi in India, the most polluted capital city in the world, where emergency levels of photochemical smogs are common.
Nigeria, along with Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Benin promised in 2017 to stop the imports of “Africa quality” oil products as part of a UN environment programme initiative. But while Ghana has acted, reducing sulphur from 3,000 to 50 parts per million, Nigeria has argued that it needs more time to adapt.
Source: Punch
