Nigeria, Jan. 15 -- Thursday 15th January marks seventy years since colonial Nigeria and the oil industry began their continuing joint dating of the Niger Delta region. Over forty years before that rendezvous, the search for petroleum oil in Nigeria had started, in about 1913, the year before the Southern and Northern parts of present day Nigeria were joined together to form a single country, by the then colonial authority, i.e.the British government.

The German Bitumen Company was the first to start exploration. Some other companies, mostly British and European, also explored many areas in the country with the aim of mining petroleum. Early in the 20th Century, petroleum became a very important commodity and was in high demand across th...