Human Rights Due Diligence and Petroleum Operations: Analysing Corporate Practice Against the UNGPs in the South South Zone

This study analyses the human rights due diligence practices of petroleum companies operating in Nigeria's South South geopolitical zone against the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), identifying alignment gaps and enabling conditions for improvement. The UNGPs establish a corporate responsibility to respect human rights that is independent of state obligations and has increasingly shaped petroleum sector accountability norms globally. Using an empirical qualitative methodology, the research reviews human rights impact assessment reports, corporate sustainability disclosures, and HCDT implementation records published by twelve petroleum companies operating in Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom States between 2020 and 2024. Interviews are conducted with thirty community representatives and eight civil society human rights monitors. Thematic content analysis is applied to identify compliance patterns across the three pillars of the UNGPs. Findings reveal that while most companies acknowledge the UNGPs in policy statements, fewer than 30 percent have conducted formal human rights impact assessments, and remedy mechanisms remain largely inaccessible to affected communities. The study proposes mandatory human rights due diligence obligations as a condition for NUPRC licence renewal. Keywords: human rights due diligence, UNGPs, petroleum operations, South South Nigeria, accountability.