CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

There has been a series of activities which necessitate an increase in the consumption of fossil
fuel in the world today. Crude oil is naturally occurring oil, bituminous liquid composed
predominantly of various organic chemicals. Crude oil can be said to be formed as a result of
heat action on dead aquatic organisms.

The coastal zone in Nigeria is richly endowed with a variety of minerals. The most important of
these are oil and gas. Since the first shipment of oil in 1958, there has been an upsurge in oil
exploration activities in Nigeria. These have led to the discovery of numerous oil fields and
subsequently to the development of various oil terminals (Ozobia, 1998).

The Nigerian coastal zone is richly endowed with oil and gas. Nigeria crude oil reserve is over 25
billion barrels, while the oil production per day is estimated at 2.3 million barrels. Oil
production activities are increasing.

Oil spillage is categorized into four groups: minor, medium, major, and disaster. Minor oil spill
takes place when the oil discharge is less than 25 barrels in inland waters or less than 250
barrels on land, offshore or coastal waters that does not pose a threat to the public health or
welfare. in the case of the medium, the spill must be 250 barrels or less in the inland water or
250-2500 barrels on land, offshore and coastal water while for the major spill, the discharge to
the inland waters is in excess of 250 barrels on land, any uncontrolled well blow out, pipeline
rupture on storage tank failure which poses an imminent threat to the public health or welfare
(Ntukekpo, 1996)

Oil spillage in Nigeria occurs as a result of sabotage, corrosion of pipes and storage tanks,
carelessness during oil production operations and oil tankers accidents.

In Nigeria, fifty percent (50%) of oil spills is due to corrosion, twenty eight percent(28%) to
sabotage and twenty one percent(21%) to oil production operations. one percent (1%) of oil
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spills is due to engineering drills, inability to effectively control oil wells, failure of machines,
and inadequate care in loading and unloading oil vessels.

Most of the oil pipes and tanks in the country are very old and lack regular inspection and
maintenance. Thousands of barrels of oil have poured into the environment through some of
the corroded pipes and tanks.

Sabotage is another major cause of oil spillage in the country. Some of the inhabitants of the oil
rich Niger Delta engage in oil bunkering and from time to time damage and destroy oil pipelines
in their effort to collect oil from them.

This project is to measure how effective animal hair/ fur can be in oil spill removal.

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The aim and objective of the project is to investigate the effectiveness of using animal hair/ fur
in cleaning up an oil spill on water surface.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of this research work covers the use of animal hair/ fur to clean up oil spill and also
to determine the variation in the physical properties of the original crude oil and that of the
recovered one.

1.4 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is limited to the use of only animal hair/ fur as a sorbent to clean up oil spill,
and also motor engine oil will be use as the crude oil.