Theft hurts Nigeria’s oil output but crackdown intensifies

FILE- Smoke rises from an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, Nigeria's Delta region. Thursday, March. 24, 2011. Nigerian security forces say they are intensifying a clampdown on thieves that have stifled crude production in the West African nation after it lost its status as Africa's largest crude producer. A special military operation in the oil-rich Niger Delta region has led to the arrest of more than 100 suspected oil thieves and the seizure of 30 billion naira ($70 million) worth of oil assets since April this year, the Nigerian navy told the Associated Press on Thursday, Sept. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, File)