Where in the World is Stolen Nigerian Oil?

We have learned a lot about the problem of stolen crude oil plaguing Nigeria. It is estimated that up to 100,000 barrels of oil are stolen each day. That is almost 5% of all the oil exported in a day.

But how exactly does one steal 100,000 barrels of crude oil without getting caught red handed?

This picture shows large scale oil bunkering. A large mother ship lies in wait while a small tanker fills up from an illegal barge tapping into the pipeline. The small tanker empties into the Mother ship and refills. 

This picture shows small scale oil bunkering. A small tanker fills up from a barge illegally tapped and then leaves.

The boldest type of oil bunkering is simply when a tugboat or powerful towing boat simply attaches to a barge and carries it away when it is full.

Here comes another question. Where is this oil going? Where is is being sold? Surely in some run down shady warehouse like in gangster movies...wrong. This oil is being sold primarily on Wall St. Great Britain and the United States are the main buyers of this stolen crude oil. That's upsetting. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/19/us-nigeria-oil-theft-idUSBRE98I13P20130919

What's even more upsetting is the companies reaction to the oil that it loses not from theft but from simply spilling it into the ocean. It is estimated that about 9 million barrels of oil have been spilled in Nigeria since western companies came in. Companies like Shell refuse to clean up oil spilled through terror attacks on barges (in their defense, 70% of oil spilled is because of attacks) and the spills that were their fault (the other 30%)...they also refuse to clean up or pay reparations for claiming that paying reparations will only encourage more terrorism. 

Okay. So that seems like sound logic. Last year, Shell executive Ann Pickard claimed that she had "infiltrated the Nigerian Government." Shell immediately claimed that was unture but a lot of recent non-aggression pacts you might call them between the government concerning oil clean up have been passed quietly and quickly. You be the judge.