The Life of Crude Oil Thieves

Chisco, 35, stands ankle deep in a polluted swamp, boiling up crude over a fire. He employs three people.

"I was jobless, but I have a younger brother who read geology at university and he taught me the process," he told the newsmen, adding that it was hazardous work -- "you can easily burn the whole refinery to the ground".

Godswill, who also declined to give his surname, teamed up with two of his friends to start a refinery site two years ago. His main job is maintaining a depot where crude oil is stored in a large hole that he dug in the ground.

Whenever police or military discover the site, he says, he simply pays them off.

"Sometimes we have to run away and they burn down the site," he said. "Then we just make a new one."

See one normal working day of him and his company below:

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