LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The boom in these illegal refineries began when a Niger Delta palm-wine maker figured out how to apply his techniques to refine small amounts of Nigeria's vast stores of crude oil in barrels over wood fires.

Aided and betted by his "boys," i.e. former Niger Delta militants who returned to Nigeria after battle to no awaiting jobs, the secret and techniques were later shared with friends.

The underground market for stolen oil is booming in Nigeria's coastal towns. Illegal "bunkering," which is oil theft and its illicit refinement, sale and distribution has turned some rivers and creeks into virtual black-market oil and fuel highways.

At one such facility in the Niger Delta, small streams of smoke rise from burned-out artisanal refineries. Women and children paddle dugout canoes packed with jerry cans of fuel to sell in the markets. Teenage boys are seen guiding large corroding wooden boats towards the refineries.
 
One man operating such a refinery says that if the Nigerian government provided jobs, men like him wouldn't be in the oil trade at all.
 
"We just call it offense, [but] there is no offense. If the federal government put companies here, you [would] not see anybody do this job," he says. "It's a dirty job anyway."

Everyone in the community profits from the illegal refineries. Many people here have no other options. Local law enforcement usually just takes their cut and looks the other way.

"I believe that those that making such insinuations are detractors of the JTF," Lieutenant Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, spokesperson for Nigeria's Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta says. "There are those that are outraged by the exploits and successes of our operations, and when we deal a blow to those illicit activities they react."

The task force shifted its focus from fighting militants to protecting oil last January, he says.

"The new focus is to combat illegal bunkering, illegal refineries, pipeline vandalism and other sundry crimes bedeviling Nigeria's oil and gas sectors," he says.

In a country where most national budget revenues and nearly all foreign currency come from oil exports, the stakes couldn't be higher.

"The nation is losing a lot of crude to oil theft perhaps because of negligence, or . [because] our youths don't have anything to do, or perhaps the oil companies also need to be blamed," Indutimi Komonibo, special advisor on oil and gas to the governor of Bayelsa State says.

The Niger Delta is also reeling from oil spills. Fishing communities, residents say business has died out, with their children falling ill, with no help in sight.

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