I was pretty discusted with shell after watching this video..

news.bbc.co.uk

The Niger Delta, a region the size of England, is littered with violence and gas flares - the offshoot of oil extraction - whose roar and heat you can feel for hundreds of metres around.

The flares have become symbols of the region and the paradox that exists in an area where you find one of the world's richest oil regions alongside some of the poorest people.

People here blame the fallout from the oil industry for their ruined environment, ill health and unemployment.

On the waterfront at Port Harcourt, the city at the heart of the oil industry, we found slums where people live without running water and electricity, and miles from the nearest school or clinic. No wonder many are angry.

One woman told us: "We are suffering. We don't have jobs. They make so much money with oil, but we don't see it."

Shootouts and stolen oil

With unemployment at 90%, many people of the Delta are tempted to join the criminal gangs who terrorise the area, kidnapping foreign oil workers and launching raids on oil platforms.

We joined the Joint Task Force, set up to restore order to the area, as they patrolled the streets and waterways - searching cars for weapons used by the gangs and boats for stolen barrels of oil.

"We are very happy, very happy that you are here," said drivers who were forced to stop and open their boots for inspection. The law-abiding citizen is weary after more than a decade of violence.

Maintaining the gangs is funded by the theft of oil on a huge scale - up to 200,000 barrels a day.

The Nigerian delta might be blessed with the world's best quality oil but, for the security forces, it's a nightmare. Half of the delta region is made up of water - thousands of creeks in which the gangs can operate with ease and from where they launched their most daring recent attack - on the Bonga oil platform.

Built by the Shell Oil company more than 100km offshore it was thought to be safely out of their reach. But gunmen sprayed the platform with machine gun fire, forcing it into automatic shutdown - it took weeks for production to be resumed.


The maze of waterways makes policing the delta incredibly difficult

RPGs and AK47s

It took us as many weeks to negotiate a meeting with the man who led the attack.

A dawn rendezvous with a boat and a three-hour journey through the creeks brought us to "General Boyloaf" and his boys in training, careering through the water in their high-speed boats and firing their RPGs and AK47s for our benefit.

Why did the general attack the Bonga platform?


"We really wanted to prove that nowhere is untouchable, that is why we visited there. We wanted to make this point because Shell, Chevron, all of them are moving offshore. So we visited them to prove that there is nowhere to hide," he said.

Maintenance of the gangs, their boats and weapons is expensive and is funded by the theft of oil on a huge scale - up to 200,000 barrels a day.

It's called illegal bunkering - the gangs break into and siphon oil out of the pipelines which run close to the shore.

The gangs are well-armed and the Joint Task Force is ill-equipped for the challenge.

They've managed to seize only a few of the barges used to ferry the stolen oil to huge tankers waiting offshore to take it on to the world's refineries. It's a huge and sophisticated operation on an international scale.



'Blood oil'

The Head of Shell in Nigeria, Basil Omiyi, says: "It's a huge concern and a major issue for the government and the state government because of loss of revenue.

"You will recall that the President of Nigeria on two occasions has called it 'blood oil' - similar to 'blood diamonds' - and that it requires international collaboration to resolve it and I think I agree very strongly with that."

When the drop in legal production in the Nigerian Delta helped push the price of oil to new heights last year, the British prime minister offered military aid to the Nigerian Government to tackle the problem.

The officers of the Task Force told us that they want helicopter gunships and new boats and ships. They're unlikely to get what they want.

Human rights groups reacted in horror to the prime minister's offer, pointing out it is often the politicians themselves who arm and use the gangs for their own, political purposes.

'We will shoot them down'

The gangs are often better armed than the force charged with policing them
The offer has now been scaled down - to training help only - but it did have one, dramatic result. In retaliation, Gen Boyloaf called off a temporary ceasefire.

"The message I have for Gordon Brown", he says, "is to tell him that no matter the para-assistance, the amenities they bring from the United Kingdom and elsewhere.... we will make sure we will shoot them down."

For the time being, guns on both sides will continue to exchange fire on the creeks of the Delta and the communities who live at the heart of the oil-producing areas will continue to wonder whatever good the oil wealth has ever done for them.


The gangs are often better armed than the force charged with policing them

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sue Lloyd Roberts' film on oil and violence in the Niger Delta can be seen in the UK on Newsnightonline and on BBC Two at 2230 on 8 January. An extended version can be seen on Our World on BBC World News - check schedules for local times.

Source

Is he?!

Thanks for letting us know Jinx, it is amazing what lurks below the surface regarding Large Multi-National / Global Companies.

I would say companies like Shell (as you'd mentioned here), BP, AMACO, Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, McDonalds, Burger King, Kellogs, and so many more have something to hide somewhere?

It makes me wonder what really goes on which is unseen by the normal public?

I just find it sickening that these people live in poverty as it is, they have had the rivers polluted, massive pipes made in-between there villages (that do not get maintained and burst all over the place), there fresh water supplies destroyed and what for, so some oil barons can make more millions.

What are they giving back to these people except for the destruction of there homelands and livelihoods?..

What about India where The Caste-System is Officially Banned, but is Still Practiced throughout India.

God help anyone who's Great-Great-Great Grand-Parents were Part-Of THE UNTOUCHABLE-CASTE, because Their Relatives Today would be Only Allowed to do The Most Sickenly Repulsive Jobs Today!

Think about it, if Your Ancestors Cleaned Sewers etc, 1000 Years Ago in India, it Would be Only Simular Jobs you'd be Allowed to be Employed In Today, unless you had emigrated to another country!

Not being funny m8, but whats it got to do with shell?

I can understand that the locals would be angry about the fact that Shell are "stealing" their resources from their land, but would do you think would happen if Shell wasn't there?

It'd be all out war - militias fighting for control of the oil, a repeat of the scramble for diamonds in Sierra Leone, Liberia etc.

This is the locals mentality:


If a big co-operation like Shell wasn't there it would be fucking chaos.

What needs to happen if for Shell to give something back to the locals - jobs, charity, whatever.

Maybe they already are doing that?

People who are Poverty-Stricken being used as a Cheap Labour Force M8.

Shell has their fingers in India too, where no doubt they are using People who are in The Lower-Castes in the more dangerous, dirty jobs I believe?

They're still giving those people jobs.

What you had stated is Too True, I am sorry to say!

Look-Up the West-Side Boys as a good reference to what Bob has mentioned here!

And the Revolutionary United Front, who used to cut people's hands off to prevent them voting for the political opposition.

Well dont you blame them, they have had there lives destroyed and for what, for some rich bastard to get even richer, they have been saying they are going to do something about all of this since 1995 and the locals say it's even worse now.


How do you work that out?


Ah i get what your saying now..

um.... no..

Yes, they carry on killing each other, because Charities from the wealthier parts of the globe will go there and do their best to look after the local population and so on!

How do you know?

You've read one news report and concluded that Shell are the worst company since "Slaves R Us".

I'm pretty sure that they've purchased that land anyway, so they've got the right to do whatever they want with it.

Polluting the river is not fair, but that's the only argument I can see from the locals point of view.

It's Shells land - they've seen an opportunity and taken it, and are making a fucking lot of money from their initiative.

Fair play to them.

I'd like to ask you the same question too lol..



So they purchased land that people live on and destroyed it, nice1 shell..

Um did you not watch the video, it clearly shows a well that has been polluted, you can clearly see the oil shining in the bucket and the mans hand covered in oil after dipping his hand in the bucket that came from the well.

Then theres the massive burst pipe going straight through the middle of there camp, then they show you the polluted rivers that the fisherman have to fish in lol, if you say that shell are doing a good job then you must be really delusional.

I didn't say that.


I'm just looking at it from Shell's perspective - they're an oil company, they saw an opportunity in Nigeria years ago to make money, and took it.

Polluting the local environment is their only wrongdoing - albeit a pretty horrific one. Some authority needs to step in and force the company to take action.

Is this what JoC has been reduced too!? Debates between JinxC and Ravin-Rom?

Not our fault that hardly anyone is contributing to this group anymore..

I think it's Shell's fault.