9_111110_THE-OIL-SHOW_George-Osodi_Photo-aus_Oil-Rich-Niger-Delta_2003-2007_02-c-George-Osodi

NIGERIA OIL UNREST
Ethnic Urhobo Woman catrry her dried tapioca away from the heat of a Shell Oil gas flare in Utorogu, near Warri in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta region, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2006. Despite it’s oil and natural gas riches, the delta region remains one of the most impoverished regions of Nigeria. Delta residents accuse successive Nigerian governments and international oil companies of depriving them of the wealth pumped from their backyards. Attacks this year by militant groups fighting for greater local control of the country’s oil wealth, as well as criminal gangs in the delta, have reduced Nigeria’s exports by roughly 500,000 barrels a day. Nigeria in Africa’s biggest oil exporter and supplies about 10 % of US oil and has been growing in importance as a supplier. Oil accounts for about 95 % of the country’s exports. But the delta is a volatile cocktail of warlords, oil thieves, corrupt government officials and unemployed youths.(AP Photo/George Osodi)