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Episode details

World Service,27 Apr 2022,26 mins

SeriesSlick: The Story of Oil, Shell and Nigeria

Slick: 4. The oil thieves

The Compass

Available for over a year

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)

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