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Nigeria's stolen oil is sold and laundered abroad: report
By Joe Brock
ABUJA (Reuters) - Stolen Nigerian oil worth billions of dollars is sold every year on international markets and much of the proceeds are laundered in world financial centers like Britain and the United States, a report said on Thursday.
An estimated 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil was stolen from pipelines in the Niger Delta in the first quarter of this year, the report by London-based Chatham House said, not including the unknown quantities stolen from export terminals.
The theft amounts to around 5 percent of Nigeria's current 2 million bpd production but has a wider impact because oil companies are often forced to shut down pipelines due to damage caused by thieves. Nigeria is producing 400,000 bpd below its capacity, mainly due to theft and pipeline closures. . . .
"Oil theft is a species of organized crime that is almost totally off the international community's radar," the report says. "Nigeria is the main West African hub for other types of organized crime ... notably piracy, drug and arms trafficking. The networks involved sometimes overlap with oil theft."
Oil theft begins in the labyrinthine creeks and waterways of the Niger Delta, a swampland area spanning over 10,000 square miles that has long been blighted by kidnappings, militant uprisings and gangland violence. . . .
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