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The Compass: Slick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria : Slick: 4. The oil thieves

Factual

The Oil Thieves

27/04/2022 GMT

Slick: 4. The oil thieves

Slick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria

BBC World Service - The Compass, Slick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria, Slick: 4. The oil thieves

We meet the people involved in Nigeria’s vast illegal oil business

We meet the people involved in Nigeria’s vast illegal oil business.

The newest player in the Niger Delta is not a multinational company, it is Nigeria’s enormous illegal oil industry. Oil thieves cut the pipelines, siphoning off oil, which they refine in the bush and sell on the black market. 

BBC West Africa correspondent Mayeni Jones meets an oil thief king pin, as well as an exuberant local politician, taking on this illegal business and treks deep into the forests of the Niger Delta to visit an underground refinery. 

And we catch up with Victoria Bera. For decades, she has been in a prolonged legal battle against Shell in courthouses around the world. Will she finally get the justice she seeks? 

Presenter: Mayeni Jones 
Producer: Josephine Casserly 
Editor: Bridget Harney

(Photo: Illegal oil refinery in Emuoha, Niger Delta. Credit: Fyneface Dumnamene)

The Compass: Slick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria 

Slick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria 

The story of fossil fuel giant, Shell, and the people who pay the price for oil.

When oil company, Shell D’Arcy first struck black gold in Nigeria in the 1950’s, there were celebrations in the creeks of the Niger Delta.  Many of the locals had no idea what this thick black substance was, but it would go on to shape their lives and those of everyone in the region for decades to come.

Today, Niger Deltans have been engaged in prolonged court battles against Shell around the world. How did this oil giant go from being welcomed in the region to being sued by its inhabitants? 

In this four part series, BBC West Africa Correspondent Mayeni Jones tells the story of how oil changed the fate of Nigeria.

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