Oloibiri
Oloibiri is a village in Nigeria in the state of Bayelsa .
The Church of St. Michael was built at the beginning of the 20th century . During this time, the first church school was built. The village is considered to be the place in Nigeria where Shell first successfully drilled for oil in June 1956 . According to other information, this drilling is said to have taken place in the neighboring village of Ogbia . Another tradition claims that the first oil discovery was actually made in Itokopiri , ten kilometers further away .
In the initial phase, up to 5,100 barrels of 159 liters each of crude oil per day were produced on the Oloibiri field. In return for the mining on an area of 2138 acres (865 hectares), Shell was to take over the construction of the local infrastructure. The construction projects agreed with the population were not carried out. In 2014 Oloibiri still had a small connection to the electricity grid.
The oil discovery has not resulted in any improvement in life for the residents. In the 1970s, oil mining was stopped. The number of residents fell from around 10,000 in the 1980s to less than 1,000 in 2007. People live at or below the poverty line . The oil production has poisoned the groundwater, making fishing in the Niger Delta impossible.
The name of the village is possibly derived from the personal name Oloi . A man of this name is said to have founded the village.
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c Daily Sun, Oliobiri: Land of oil and misery , May 19, 2005 ( WebCite ( Memento of May 26, 2009 on WebCite ))
- ↑ a b Death of Ken Saro-Wiwa in Nigeria - "Shell must be held accountable" ( Memento from May 29, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Markus M. Haefliger: Infiltrated Billions - When resource wealth becomes a curse [...]. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Folio): Raw materials . No. 278 . Zurich September 2014, p. 36-41 .
- ^ National Geographic, Nigerian Oil - Curse of the Black Gold , February 2007
Coordinates: 4 ° 40 ′ 2 " N , 6 ° 18 ′ 30" E