Reuters
5 March 2011
* Rising oil prices make illegal refineries profitable
* Pipelines vandalised to obtain crude oil
* Damage costs oil firms millions of dollars a year
ODIGBO, Nigeria, March 5 (Reuters) - A Nigerian soldier opens fire into drums of gasoline stacked among the mangroves, then runs back to a safe distance.
His colleagues set light to rags on the end of a stick and fling them into the liquid seeping from the bullet holes. The heat forces them to look away as orange flames roar into the air, billowing thick, black smoke.
Destroying illegal oil refineries dotted among the creeks of the Niger Delta is almost as dangerous for these soldiers as working here was for the young men who turned stolen crude oil into home-made gasoline.
Crude oil thieves -- known locally as "bunkerers" -- have been a fact of life for years in Africa's biggest oil and gas industry, puncturing pipelines and costing Nigeria
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