MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO HYDROCARBON EXPLORATION IN THE NIGER DELTA: GEOPHYSICS, ENERGY ECONOMICS, SURVEYING, AND URBAN PLANNING PERSPECTIVES

Abstract

One of the most important nexuses of natural resources, economic reliance and environmental risk in Africa is found in the Niger Delta. Exploration, as outlined in the article, is multi-disciplinary and includes perspectives in geophysics, energy economics, surveying and in the urban and regional planning. Three-dimensional seismic imaging, remote sensing and artificial intelligence are changing the nature of the subsurface in the region further refining the nature of the estimates of the hydrocarbon reserves, as well as, carbon capture and storage developments. It contextualizes the energy economics of the Niger Delta within the wider politics of resource, revenue volatility and rentier state, and the implication of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021) and the climate provisions of the Paris Agreement. It is explained how the surveying technologies, and the geospatial technologies are used in the oil spill mapping, pipeline networks mapping, urban encroachment mapping and urban planning strategies, the oil-industrial infrastructure, settlement development and nature discrepancies are discussed. The paper presents a case study; this is one of the keys that the oil and gas industry should consider exploring the Niger Delta using the disciplinary and multi-sectoral partnerships as a means of sustainable exploitation. It is an incredibly hard exercise to test ultra-deep water and marginal field and to carry it up to the stage of technological and economic development, not only, it is a highly pressured and socially stressed affair of bringing up the fruits of exploration. The conclusion of this paper is that any community confronted with the pressure of energy transition in Nigeria in the bid to balance between energy security and environmental protection and community resiliency in the region should take a multidisciplinary approach to the issue.