Causes and Terrain of Oil Spillage in Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: The Analysis of Variance Approach

Abstract

Oil spillage in Niger Delta region of Nigeria has been on an increase and almost on a regular basis. The objective of this study is on the causes and terrain of oil spillage in the Niger Delta with emphasis on which causes have significant effect on the volume of oil spillage, the terrain that is most affected. The two way analysis of variance statistical tool was employed and it was discovered that the ‘sabotage’ cause was significant at a 5% level of significance and from the pairwise multiple comparison the ‘sabotage’ cause was seen as the major causes of oil spillage in the Niger Delta followed by the ‘operational’ and ‘mystery spill’ causes respectively. It was also discovered that the incident site that was most affected was the swamp terrain with 82% while water was 46% and land with 6.5%. The study concluded that to reduce or manage oil spillage in Nigeria, the Federal government and Federal environmental management agency should enforce the laws governing oil spill incident in Nigeria.