A Comparative Evaluation of the Management of Petroleum Resource in Different Jurisdictions: Canada, USA and Nigeria [A Case Study of Niger Delta of Nigeria]

Abstract

The Niger Delta has for some years been the site of major confrontations between the people and the Nigerian government’s security forces, resulting in extrajudicial executions, arbitrary detentions, and draconian restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression, association, and assembly. These violations of civil and political rights have been committed principally in response to protest about the activities of the multinational companies that produce Nigeria’s oil, and the use made of the oil revenue by the Nigerian government. Based on this the study sought to employ Comparative Analysis of Research Design.  The study focuses on the Comparative Evaluation of the Management of Petroleum Resources in Different Jurisdiction: Canada, USA and Nigeria, so that the government of Nigeria can borrow a leaf from other nations’ management system approach,  in order to sustain the Post-amnesty Programme and to put an end to the restiveness in the Niger Delta region. It also concludes that since, petroleum extraction in the Niger Delta is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Petroleum has since its production in the Niger Delta been considered exclusively a state property. The right approach should be made to ensure that the conflict is stopped and the areas affected developed so as to foster peace and growth in Nigeria. The study recommended that the ownership and control of petroleum resources be made to revert to the oil producing areas just as the case in the United States of America and as witnessed in Canada, where ownership and control of natural resources is vested on the people of the region.