Transnational Crime and the Developing World

estimate places the daily loss of crude oil at around US$20,000 to $245,000, which translates into
significant savings for guerrilla groups and OCGs, since they can refine the stolen crude rather than
purchase gasoline for use in cocaine production.
C. Dynamics
Crude oil theft is a spectrum of methods, motivations, and markets. Thefts occur both onshore and
offshore and target all aspects of the oil industry, from crude oil and refined products to pipelines and
tankers. Groups engaged in the large-scale sale of crude seek lucrative profits or financing, while the
individuals involved in small-scale theft and refining are seeking to earn a living. Stolen crude that is
refined typically remains within the domestic market, whereas unrefined fuel is smuggled to international
markets.
The methods used to steal crude oil largely depend on the country’s oil infrastructure and the
sophistication of the individual or group. The most common source of stolen oil is pipelines; thieves
penetrate the pipelines using tools as simple as hacksaws and load the crude into cans and drums, or
install more sophisticated taps to which hoses can be connected. Pipelines are the most vulnerable
point for crude oil theft because they regularly run through remote and/or hard-to-control territory,
making monitoring and protection difficult as well as expensive. Another more direct option is to take
the oil straight from wellheads. 387 Brazen OCGs even siphon oil directly from holding facilities and export
terminals using tankers. 388 Groups also target oil tankers offshore, selling the cargo straight away or
transferring it to another ship for later sale. 389
Individuals in developing countries commonly engage in crude oil theft and illegal refining as an
economic alternative to unemployment or poverty. Those employed in bunkering in Nigeria can earn
upwards of US$50 to $60 a day, far surpassing the country’s 2015 GDP per capita of US$3,203. 390 Many
from the Niger Delta region do not view bunkering as illegal, holding the opinion that the oil belongs
to the people, and see bunkering as the sole way to benefit from the (often) mismanaged domestic
resource. In Mexico, the theft of 10,000 liters of oil (nearly 62 barrels) returns roughly US$4,600; for 20 to
40 minutes of work, small teams earn nearly half of the country’s annual GDP per capita (US$10,353). 391
While greater revenues could be earned from drug trafficking, the lower risks of arrest and violence in oil
theft may be more attractive to some.
mately US$10,000, which, at US$52.32/barrel average price in 2015, is equivalent to roughly 4,700 barrels. Ibid.
387
Nabih Bulos, “How Does Islamic State Make Money off Oil Fields in Syria and Iraq?,” Los Angeles Times, December 6, 2015, http://www.latimes.
com/world/middleeast/la-fg-islamic-state-oil-qa-20151206-story.html.
388
VICE News, Mexican Oil and Drug Cartels: Cocaine & Crude, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPEfArQU7tc#t=639; Katsouris and
Sayne, Nigeria’s Criminal Crude, 4.
389
Otto, “Westward Ho!,” 320.
390
Alan Taylor, “Nigeria’s Illegal Oil Refineries,” The Atlantic, January 15, 2013, http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2013/01/nigerias-illegal-oil-refineries/100439/;
“World DataBank,” [Online Database], The World Bank, accessed December 22, 2016, http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx.
391
VICE News, Mexican Oil and Drug Cartels; “World DataBank.”
Transnational Crime and the Developing World 85