The Political Economy Of Illegal Bunkering In Nigeria

[dArKeR]

The Niger Delta has been a source of illicit international business deals (like the trans-Atlantic slave trade), as far back as the 15th century. Today a new form of syndicated criminal proclivity is threatening the very foundations of Nigeria’s petroleum industry, and by extension, the Nigerian economy, as well as putting tremendous pressure on Chief (General) Olusegun Obasanjo. That problem is the “illegal bunkering” of crude oil and/or its derivatives.

The term “bunkering”, (whether legal or illegal) has been thoroughly abused, demonised, and misused in Nigerian parlance, so much so that the mere mention of it readily evokes, connotes, or triggers subliminal suggestions of grand illegality in the Nigerian paradigm. For example, when petroleum products pipelines get cannibalised, the Nigerian mind very effortlessly visualises “illegal bunkering” in progress. When shiploads of crude oil (from refineries) get stolen, and are routinely sold off as low-pour fuel oil (LPFO) - a relatively cheaper commodity in the international oil markets - Nigerians simply smile, and know, at the very bottom of their very naive hearts, that “illegal bunkering” has definitely taken place.

While in the Nigerian worldview, “bunkering”, (whether legal or illegal), is synonymous with stealing petroleum (or/and its derivatives), in Oxford English, “bunkering” is a legitimate process whereby a duly licensed operator provides fuels, water, and lubricants (bunkering services) for marine vessels on request. Simply stated, “bunkering” is the fuelling of ships. It is like having a floating fuel service station on the high seas, or at coastal jetties, to fuel, or/and supply provisions for ships.

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