Skip to content
Subscriber Only
Business

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
Oil And Gas Operations In Nigeria

Photographer: George Osodi/Bloomberg

Updated on

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.