I read this article on this subject and one reader made a comment i think we should all think about.

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Beyond Petroleum’s (formerly known as British Petroleum) (BP) oil spill is not just American problem but the problem of the world for many reasons:
• Depending on the direction of the wind the spil could go to any part of the world. Compare this with the Chernobyl disaster in Russia which got to USA. Nigeria is not safe.
• The cost of clean up, no matter who pays for it initially would be recovered from the market place which means that you and I would pay one way or another.
• The dwindling supply of oil would dwindle even faster and eventually show up at the pump where the driver meets the pump.
• The environmental impact especially its impact on sea foods could affect the price and the safety of foods for a very long time. Nations of the world got a dress rehearsal of what happens when food is scarce a few years ago when food riots arose in some parts of the world.
• There are many more reasons, but you get the idea of where I am going.

With the knowledge of the enormity of the problem created by this oil disaster it behooves Nigeria and Nigerians to pay special attention to what is happening and how it is being solved. Nigerian president Jonathan and his oil minister Mrs. Madueke should be very much vested in this matter because:
• Nigeria has oil and has oil rigs in its delta.
• All the companies involved in the current disaster are operational in Nigeria (BP, Halliburton, et al) and must have built their rigs the same way (or even in an inferior way) as that in the Gulf of Mexico.
• Should the same thing happen in Nigeria, the oil companies would most likely adopt the same evasive and denial tactics used in the present event. And given that Nigeria is less sophisticated than USA the companies would expect a greater success. The experience would also have bolstered their confidence that they could weather the Nigerian storm.

What Nigeria should do is very straight forward and should be done now.

a) Create a standing committee made up of the best chemical and structural engineers, scientists, oil drilling experts policy wonks, and other professionals to monitor US government’s response to the disaster. This group would look for what information US is asking and getting and what they are learning from those documents. It should also learn how the clean up is being done such as what chemical treatments are used and how; how responsibility for clean up and other costs are assembled and allocated; what caused the explosion and what is done to prevent such future events. And so many other details. This committee should be in business for as long as the clean up is ongoing.
b) Nigerian government should also stop granting licenses for now until we know what happened and assess the chances of it happening in Nigeria.
c) There is a strong reason to call for the review of the construction of all rigs and to see how they compare with the ones in the Gulf of Mexico.
d) Apart from the Nigerian Government reactions suggested above, Nigerian Chemists, engineers, and scientists especially those in institutions of higher learning who have the education and knowledge should pay attention as interested observers and bone up on how to prevent the disaster and if they occur on how to deal with it. They should follow the events as a professional hobby. Their services could be needed in a hurry.
e) Bunkering, oil allocations, and pipelines ought to be given close attention from now going forward.

A wise man learns from the mistake of others. A foolish man waits to make his own mistakes and sometimes does not survive the mistakes.

If there is a silver lining in the Gulf disaster, it is that it happened in USA. This country is perhaps the only country that could stand up to the Big Oil and make demands. It has the resources to know when Big Oil plays games and can call a halt to the games. Poor oil producing countries like Nigeria has to watch what Big Brother is doing and learn.

To be fore warned is to be fore armed.

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What would you call what Shell has been doing in Nigeria?