Africa West--The Sahel

Africa has been beset by two similar but distinct droughts for about 30 years below the Sahara Desert. The Horn of African drought is in the east, having it oil field source in the Saudi Arabian Peninsula countries. The drought in the west comes from two sources, the Libyan/Algerian fields and the Nigerian Delta (left of center in map). The latter, operated primarily by Shell Oil, generates a quarter of the world's total of flared CO2.

Sahel Location and Countries

• "The Sahel forms the southern edge of the Saharan desert, passing at least 4,500km from Senegal through Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, and blends seamlessly into the slightly less arid Sudano-Sahel belt to its southern edge."  Sahel [The East African or Horn of Africa drought countries are Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Sudan and Djibouti--Map.]

Droughts of the 20th Century:

• "Three major droughts have occurred this century, in 1910-1916, 1941-1945, and a long period of below average rainfall (termed 'desiccation') that began in the late-1960s and continued, with some interruptions, into the the 1980s. Absolute minimum rainfall level were recorded at many stations in 1983 and 1984. The period of poor rainfall in the 1970s struck particularly hard for many Sahelian farmers and pastoralists, when there were an estimated 100,000 drought-related deaths". Sahel 25-Year Drought
• "Recent Landsat images have shown that Lake Chad has shrunk to 1/20 of its dimensions of 35 years ago, when it was the size of Lake Erie! It's fading faster than the ratings of the XFL". Lake Chad Disappears

Flaring of CO2: Upwind and locally (Note the time frame of droughts and oil fields.)

• "Nigeria produces almost two million barrels of oil a day from its oil fields in the Niger Delta area. Most of the oil comes from reservoirs containing gas, which is produced with the oil. This associated gas is separated from the oil at flowstations and more than 95 per cent of it is flared – currently a total of some two billion standard cubic feet per day (scf/d), which is estimated to be about a quarter of the gas the world flares and vents." Nigeria: Shell Flaring
• "About half the gas flared in Nigeria is produced by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) in the course of providing half the country’s oil exports. The company has more than 90 oil and gas fields spread over some 30,000 square kilometres of oil mining leases in the Niger Delta." Nigeria: Shell Flaring
• "There are also several gas flares near villages in the area, which burn 24 hours a day, flaring 1100 million cubic feet of gas a day. This creates constant noise, and soot which pollutes the air, land, and water and causes acid rain"  Nigeria, One Villages Woe:
• "According to figures compiled by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), at the moment the Ogoniland oilfield is the world's biggest single cause of global warming. The gas which is found with the oil is flared instead of being piped away and used. This flaring emits thirty four million tons of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, a year and the oilfield emits a further twelve million tons of methane, which is up to thirty five times more potent. In comparison, fuel burning in Britain's homes emits twenty three million tons of carbon dioxide and forty six thousand tons of methane a year." gas:oil flare ratio

Poverty in the midst of riches

• "Nigeria is now a major exporter, producing nearly two million barrels of oil a day - the same as Kuwait before the Iraqi invasion." (from Port Harcourt)
• "Meanwhile petrol is in such short supply inside the country that there are huge queues outside most stations." [Kuwait provides universal education and health care.] (from Port Harcourt)
• "Millions of poor African families desperately need clean water, hiking miles to fetch it or buying exorbitantly priced bottled water, even as wealthy Africans wash their cars and water their lawns. Many slum dwellers steal water from pipelines .... Girls who traditionally fetch water cannot attend school during the hours they spend each day toting heavy containers. With no chance to get an education, these girls will have little chance of escaping poverty." African Water Crises

Future: Elephant Deepwater Wells:  October 2000 of The Hydrographic Journal  

• "But it is the immense promise of the giant deepwater 'elephant' fields that is fuelling the current boom in exploration and development in the region and raising the levels of investment coming into it."
• The number of deepwater wells is expected to increase from 45 to 552. For an indication of the production rate of these deepwater "elephant fields," see the production figures for Gulf Of Mexico Deepwater wells--100 times on shore wells.

Index of Docs (not indexDir)