Explosion at Nigerian illegal oil refinery kills more than 100
(VOVWORLD) - More than 100 people were killed overnight in an explosion at an illegal oil refining depot in Nigeria’s Rivers state, a local government official and an environmental group said.
 A member of the task force on illegal crude oil bunkering stands around a crude storage facility in Okrika, Nigeria. (Photo: Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters) |
Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal crude refining an attractive business but with deadly consequences.
Crude oil is tapped from a web of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks.
The hazardous process has led to many fatal accidents and has polluted a region already blighted by oil spills in farmland, creeks and lagoons.