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Niger Delta Research Digest

(NDRD)

A journal of the Institute for Niger Delta Studies (INDS)

Niger Delta University, Nigeria.
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Bunkering, Artisanal Refining and the Prospects of Modular Refineries in the Niger Delta

Pages 21-29
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17319655
Keywords: Crude petroleum oil bunkering modular refinery artisanal refining

Abstract

The issue of crude oil and allied products theft and bunkering has been on since the late 1970s. This early illegal activity was mostly associated with top military personnel charged with the responsibility of safeguarding the flow of petroleum products in the country and their collaborators. Illegal bunkering by youths in the Niger Delta became popularized in 2007 when youths engaged in the siphoning of fuel condensate popularly known as “Asari Fuel” (in local parlance) from the Soku fields in Asari Toru Local Government Council of River State. This was in direct response to decades of environmental degradation, neglect, impoverishment, unemployment, human right abuses, severe shortages of refined crude oil products and state repression. Also, the widespread distillation of crude oil into low quality end-user products in the Niger Delta is even a more recent provenance traceable to, but not earlier than 2003/2004. These activities coupled with wilful vandalism of pipelines conveying oil and gas products had become of great concern by the time of Buhari’s first outing as military head of state in Nigeria, enough to be included in the economic crimes for which a death penalty was the prescription by the military administration. Against the backdrop of recent pronouncements by principal officers of the current leadership of the Nigerian state, this research considers the potential of modular refineries to serve as an alternative to crude oil theft, bunkering and illegal refining of petroleum products and observes that every where the concept of modular refinery has been embraced, it has been only a stop-gap measure either owing to dearth in funds needed to establish the more traditional refineries or as an interim measure to meet local demands and allow governments ample time to re-strategize on the growth of existing but ailing traditional refineries.

How to Cite

Harvard Style

CHARLES, O. (2017), "Bunkering, Artisanal Refining and the Prospects of Modular Refineries in the Niger Delta", in Niger Delta Research Digest Vol. 12, No. 2, pp21-29, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17319655.

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