Nigeria’s Oil Thieves Roar Back as Militants Kept in Check
- About 100,000 barrels of crude are being taken daily: SBM
- Oil theft is now an industry employing thousands in Nigeria
Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg
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Just as Nigeria gets to grips with militants who brought the nation’s oil industry to its knees a few years ago, another group of longstanding foes are slowly making a comeback: thieves.
Saboteurs including thieves caused an 80% increase in the number of spills in 2018, Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the largest international producer in the West African country, said in a report last month. By contrast, there have been no militant-related halts to operations since 2016.