Treatment of wastewater in Nigeria's oil fields is failing, raising the risk of health hazards

By Kingsley Amakiri

Adequate wastewater treatment systems are crucial to ensure that wastewater from the oil industry does less damage.

People need both clean, safe water and sustainable energy. That means both resources must be properly managed. But when it comes to the oil and gas industries, there’s a problem.

The water that comes out of the ground along with oil and gas during oil and gas exploration and production operations is anything but clean.

This wastewater, known as “produced water”, is often heavily contaminated with salt, oil and grease, as well as potentially dangerous compounds. Some are linked to lung, skin and bladder cancer in humans. These compounds can also harm or kill aquatic life.

So, the act of producing energy compromises another key element of human and environmental health: water. This won’t change any time soon. The Produced Water Society, made up of oil and gas professionals focused on water quality, forecasts a doubling in produced water volumes globally over the next ten years.

Adequate wastewater treatment systems are crucial to ensure that produced water does less damage. Proper treatment means the water can be recycled and reused for irrigation, livestock and in other industries. In this way, it won’t be entirely wasted and humans will be far safer.

There are global standards for such systems. But in oil rich countries in sub-Saharan Africa – such as Nigeria – there is little to no adherence to such standards. Studies show, too, that most of the treatment systems are tailor-made for the removal of a few families of compounds, in order to achieve the specific treatment objectives of each production site in this region.

In recent research, we studied samples of produced water from an oilfield in Warri, in Nigeria’s Niger Delta Region. The samples were examined before and after treatment. Our findings were troubling: dangerous compounds were present at far higher levels than permitted by global standards. The treatment process wasn’t robust enough to filter everything out.

Damage done

The Niger Delta region produces some 2 million barrels (320,000 cubic metres) of oil a day and has always accounted for more than 75% of Nigeria’s export earnings. Together oil and natural gas extraction comprise 97% of Nigeria’s foreign exchange revenues, 80% of government’s annual revenue and 70% of budgetary expenditure.

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But despite the fact that the oil industry has contributed significantly to the nation’s prosperity, the producing regions have suffered severe environmental damage. The people who live there have been subjected to untold hardship through oil pollution, environmental degradation, destruction of aquatic life, and other negative activities as a result of unhealthy extraction and treatment of oilfield waste.