The need for provision and sustenance of energy around the world has necessitated the exploitation of crude oil in different parts of the globe. However, the technology for this exercise is limited to multinational corporations from developed countries which operate in different parts of the world. These MNCs have been known to employ discriminatory operational standards in countries other than their own home countries, particularly developing countries lacking in requisite technologies to tap their own resources. This causes serious environmental degradation  and risks to humanity in their operational areas to which they have been habitually unmindful, as is the case in the Niger Delta area of Nigeria. The paper examines some of the environmentally destructive methods of oil exploration adopted by oil MNCs in developing countries like Nigeria, which may not be acceptable in developed countries where these corporations are based. It argues that while the oil MNCs substandard and unethical practices freely go unnoticed in the developing countries, the reverse is the case in developed countries where they operate. This paper examines the practice of double standards by oil MNCs in Nigeria and the implications on the local inhabitants.it seeks for the elimination of unequal enforcement of international environmental standards and disparate treatment of local populations from the oil producing areas of Nigeria.

Keywords: Environment; Degradation; MNCs; Indigenous People; International Standards.