Environmental Consequences and Governance Responses to Shale Gas Exploration Prospecting in Anambra Basin, South East Nigeria

Nigeria's shale gas resource potential in the Anambra Basin and other sedimentary formations presents a prospective energy development trajectory whose environmental consequences and governance readiness have received minimal scholarly examination compared to global shale gas scholarship concentrated in North America and Europe. This doctoral research provides a prospective environmental governance analysis of shale gas exploration and hypothetical development in the Anambra Basin, South East Nigeria, contributing both original environmental risk assessment and governance framework analysis. The environmental risk assessment component develops a site-specific environmental risk framework for Anambra Basin conditions, integrating hydrogeological analysis of aquifer vulnerability to hydraulic fracturing fluid contamination, seismic risk assessment based on geological structure data, surface water connectivity mapping, and community exposure assessment for drinking water dependent populations in Anambra and Imo states. The governance analysis component conducts a comprehensive institutional gap analysis comparing Nigeria's current environmental regulatory framework against international best practice standards for unconventional gas regulation, drawing on comparative analysis of governance frameworks in seven national jurisdictions. Primary qualitative data from 80 interviews with regulators, energy industry representatives, civil society actors, and potentially affected community members supplement documentary analysis. The study makes an original contribution by providing the first systematic academic governance analysis of Nigeria's shale gas regulatory environment, identifies 14 critical governance gaps requiring legislative or institutional reform before responsible development could proceed, and contributes a risk-tiered regulatory design framework for the Nigerian context. Keywords: shale gas governance, environmental risk, Anambra Basin, unconventional energy, regulatory framework.