The practice of stealing oil—referred to as bunkering—and the destructive refining process that follows has been sickening and killing the people of the Niger Delta for years. Most are forced to live with the catastrophic pollution while intense poverty pushes others to engage in bunkering to survive.
The practice can be tied to the exploitation of Nigeria’s fossil fuel resources over the decades and the armed blowback that caused big energy companies to withdraw. On this episode of Africa+, Bloomberg explores this black market oil economy and its economic and environmental consequences—not least of which is its signature black snow.
