Under cover of night dozens of barges queue up
to dock at a jetty in a creek somewhere in
Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.
Their holds are filled with stolen oil running from valves
illegally installed into a pipeline.
Full, they chug downstream to meet around 10 larger ships
near the oil export terminal in Bonny, Rivers State, where
they disgorge their cargo.
By 0500, in the darkness before dawn, the ships uncouple
from the barges and move out in a convoy to sea to
rendezvous with a tanker which will spirit away the stolen oil,
making it disappear into another cargo, bound for sale on the
world market.
It is likely the tanker arrived partly loaded with guns, cocaine
to be trafficked into Europe and cash, which they will use to
pay for the oil.
Bogus shipping documents make their load - possibly tens of
thousands of tons of crude oil - disappear into legitimate
markets in Eastern Europe or America.
This, according to activists and former Nigerian government
advisers, is the process by which Nigeria is losing billions of
dollars every year to oil smuggling.
The illegal "bunkering", as it is known, makes a huge profit
for Nigerian syndicates and rogue international traders.
It leaves in its wake chaos and misery for the people of the
Niger Delta.
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