the search for oil will become. this enormous crofters itself at the heart of a wider system that consists of searching for oil ever deeper under the sea and also further and further from the explosive situation that prevails on land. summary platforms and drilling vessels on a map a tiny rectangle named act. as the owner of a few kilometers square that represents a new eldorado. in the center floating like a queen bee a bellyful of a treasure that the whole world covets is the flagship of the oil company token. and i have your ideas. if. we are far from everywhere but everything is checked.

and you check who backs. all the bags. even the people you know you've been working with for years you have to search their backs even those including the head of the station. i'm already searching for. you to show anything that's bound by drugs guns knives. this kind of thing else this. situation on the gulf of guinea and the most populous country in africa nigeria is roughly the size of france and belgium combined. it's the size of the country the niger delta region that's the object of envy. a geological consultant is overflowing with excellent quality oil. thousands of drillings licensed to the oil companies of the whole world pierce the country's ground on land and at sea linked together by pipelines that run through

the mangroves in the sea in every direction. today nigeria is the largest oil producing country in africa the scene of a banquet between companies. after arriving by helicopter and after the regulation search patrick one of the two managers takes over from his colleague john francois he's back to back in offshore speak. an engineer turned manager of a nigerian father under maltese mother. is one of the rare employees of the company to hold such a post. scheduled to produce one hundred sixty three thousand barrels a day for next month we're dealing here with large volumes of it which is very very flammable is more flammable than normal oil also we have lots of volumes of gas at high pressure. it's

a look at the system so we can't beat we have meat and there's a sparkle source of ignition the next he'll be able to have a fire and then he put us at risk yes everyone has to be worried about fire because a fire on board would be disastrous it could be disastrous. so we have to be careful here permanently on the alert at you because you can't escape. the three hundred meters long and don't go. over storage tanks. in the name. offloading units woods says everything because. it's a unit that floats and it has capacity for production storage. a process we don't stop but we sit and export gas first task

a tour of the property patrick shows us around his pipe or cathedral so what currently. that is that while the whole deck level so below. us now we have tons so one of the problems that we have vessels of this size. clothes and of the decks on. this level. it would be difficult to repay because just on the needs we have. so it will be possible to cuts the plots out so well. because all the risk of exposure. is another life and then we have. just this with anybody. you say has more than enough means to. just state. for the first time we've been allowed access to this incredibly technological and

highly risky structure. on board two hundred forty men. completely lost in intel a thing of pipes that you almost never meet anyone the f.p.s. is a citadel of tubes valves elbows through which floods the precious liquid below are dozens of pipes reaching down to the bottom of the sea which suck up the oil. you could say that workers here are like the distant extras in a giant mcconnel construction protected by the navy another permanent surveillance from countless cameras. a technological exploit certainly but in a context of political paranoia. good morning. to nigerian navy patrol boat stunt gone twenty four hours a day under the olders of antonio djoko. he moved into security work after twenty two years in the army twenty two years of happiness as he describes it he's

a man who searches the bags organizes patrols and supervises all movements around the base. you. always look so here we have the mucking about and so their operations center where we monitor the whole of the echo field. with this radar. made of it which allows us to check all the boats arriving. can the two of you to know what both of the riving and especially to pick up any suspect record that wasn't expected to enter the field with the can all these cameras they monitor all the accesses here. and inside the. city will continue to secure but that's a lot of security measures for extracting oil it's not. just on this on this is

where the measures required to nigeria considering the threats that exists is very much jerry the bordering the mehdi militia. and espionage and boats intruding in the maritime exclusion zone. as in this case all night. are you armed here on board since it doesn't i'm not on. if i don't there are no weapons on board even you don't have no making your ruler should have some guys climb up the chain and they have weapons machine guns for example what do you do but i don't see that there are measures that would be taken measures that have been designed for that situation. there are no guns on board and the situation is under control i repeat the situation is under control. i mean ari is a small fishing village situated on the island of bonny right at the mouth of the niger delta. and it's here that the gas sent from the f.p.s.

so platform arrives by an undersea pipeline. if it went to the plant ameri ari would be a typical little village. with huts and shacks with palm leaf roofs streets of san music coming from portable radios open air stores kids running everywhere and a soccer match underway and the fisherman returning with the tide. would be well if next door right next door protected by barbed wire they went sending millions of cubic meters of gas and oil to the most highly developed countries in the world. did by did loading gust to order. and you don't know what they were not out there the

community nearby you know about it i mean anything from the company from. this you . know. when you come up with these guys know that all looks that. are going to fall was a very deep study lou did not install one this. and the small harbor when the ships come in the giants with gas the tiny ones with fish to worlds rub shoulders i did looks as if the big world is giving the tiny one the finger and that if you wanted to do was get a little we took our own. metal shop. and . sometimes sometimes. nigerian people work for the companies yes now as there was

a little boy with us. spotted the white man he says spotted it's very odd you see on the label among us but as a fly there are getting blood from a set of ideas about the dog. and as a supreme insult naturally there's no gas in the village to smoke the fish and from cooking think of the wood from the forest. above a terminal on the chimneys that burn off the gas nonstop to prevent overpressure and they tell us. that's a lot of use to the villages overpressure. is religion. economy to wit i do some of that up if you bought there would you. think it doesn't know what that because of the devices it. has because i didn't.

know what. that does is it not discuss the deniability i think it will get it out to about why what i wanted not up. and i didn't know what the. offshore from the village the f.p.s. the engineers and technicians continue extract oil far from land because that's the job of the heart of the story machine the end of a pipe and in a small jar the famous brown liquid. the world's holy grail you might say. so this is the oil. being treated it's a condensate it's a very light crude it is you.

know i mean we're more than two thousand meters down. and we can get something up that's relatively easy so it comes out of the top it's what they call the blob of nigeria. so this quality you have to go deeper and deeper to find it today all future major projects a situation a very great debt. so it's going to require immense technology. more and more to. the logical evolution to go would get the oil even the profit. of course other aspects of very important for the commercialization of the sort of the. you must see a mixture of water and oil because water doesn't cost much and oil costs

a lot. every time we load our oil product onto a tank we have to be sure it contains a minimum of water. say the blood of nigeria because it's their role material it's their problem we're here to help them exploited and for me it's it's the fruit of their history we spoke of their history because if they do it it's because of their millions of years of history. that we have. and i hope it will allow them to fuel their economy just. in an efficient whiteman but despite that there are a few problems. from your point of view can you understand that there are people who might want to attack you. maybe maybe you should cut that.

i'm just asking the question you don't have to answer that i know my answer is yes personally that doesn't surprise me. but doesn't surprise me. back on land we allude military surveillance to film something that's totally forbidden to film on pain or rest in major problems yeah. yeah. you know is this with. a protest movement to denounce the environmental damage caused by the old companies wants to show. i think that's where we move. and we will move into you we come close though this is not been done it's in that there fifty it's. the end of a pipeline most in the wild an enormous blaze the stench of gases insupportable the

heat five hundred meters it's already unbearable i was thinking it was the forbidden things like that yes that was a problem in. gaza and that's in two thousand and five but i'm not on that drug but our government. does not have any political weight. so they're going to know the. laws of our country is this like a monster so how it smells stinks and this sound. like this is the most i was down there this is well done i must tell you can. see this from a distance. right now. i mean this is. really. the right to but the. thing that this.

is funny is. becoming like. experts say that they can spend in nigeria by itself be sufficient to satisfy the energy needs of the whole continent of africa billions of cubic meters that we saw in the polls of vietnam up in smoke they. think the pressure in the pipe. and reality companies make so much money from the only oil and they don't even care about the gas they pump. the same time. these massive burn offs also create acid rain so that the water in the sky is no longer drinkable. garrison in charge of site surveillance court will have a visit or you spend several hours negotiating bargaining explaining ourselves to the higher ups over the telephone. solicitors reputation and his work with amnesty

international in particular allow us to get out of trouble. a former farm worker sinister is the leader of. the movement for the survival of the ogoni people its founder the writer can sorrow we. denounced both the dictatorship in power in the eighty's and the ravages caused by shell the largest of the old companies present in nigeria. in a sham trial and she was accused of murder and despite the process stations and anger of the whole world he was condemned to death and hanged along with eight other members of the movement. which companies are selling. several mss. i want to. know is this is a. walk in nigeria companies

are the most as possible. of course. because they know that when government. programs that this is a. check to permanently a school to sell a street has no car no address and no children anyone who hinders or production in nigeria is under threat of death. the village of oak creek. even crossed by a highway of pipes that don't even bury.

a choice before and for sure. so. what up on here feel the theatre. for. now right down to do or not to decide to do all of these areas. there was a day we will call from state we saw. everybody we don't know show came to. all of the advice your just has all dead he sat on the trees. on here i used to

fish weasel fishing no fish don't want to go this is condemned for ever when they speak i shall disco i doubt he's been he's very. large who would see us because they are always afraid to dimitris on composition. we mustn't lump everyone together not all the companies behave or have behaved as about the a shell in nigeria. it's just the worst one amongst them. offshore total allows us to go from installation to installation. to jack ryan is a motion

a special position by satellite with its derrick and its pipes it conforms to the stereotypical image we have of oil drilling. beneath the boat three thousand meters of water on the pockets of a further two thousand meters below the sea bed. and apocalyptic day in conditions a few months back a crane drag three men into the sea one die. for the nigerians on board the wages or uni you earn a good living in oil whether you're black or white. so.

it's a big country. i don't know but. on the floor below we can clearly see a pipe plunging into a pool on the ship. this is the umbilical cord fixed to the sea bed. inside they slide the rods that were drilled down to the deposit. and the oil is reached. they install a sort of giant valve several stories high and that really has been done it and the engineers have a very pretty nickname for it. but. i don't know the point here we are in front of the christmas tree is that when you cool it a christmas tree which you know the christmas tree is so well had and ridges and

george right it's been so nice to see of all the skies. my. face. was a. christmas tree the big day to fight for. this . was the price i feel like since something is going on we will be to put you. to do this. twenty feet christmas tree. that was started. by. some day so. you have the money back when you bet.

your. three years. but not. with those those give you. a short celestin is continue his crusade and he takes us to an incredible spot swallowed up by the underground for. effect or where. i would read in bed at the. door where. i wind up are. three is that there are fifty six. that's why i went out with them. and that's that. i'm not so bad about you know some of the less but as i speak done like my place you know going to not. been of course. you can see. used to think like you can see ya bone don't

you don't need to look like one or the finish you still go on. a money i'm bugles as you finish she's been done to go minutes. right. from. it.

all. both. of them.

moscow reaffirms its push for talks to seoul syria against any military intervention in pledging to ensure the un doesn't authorize. iran says it's ready to head back to talks about its nuclear program with western all sanctions looming in the u.s. poised to take action in the persian gulf. in the well of knowledge dries up for a day is the world's most popular online encyclopedia joins the protest over planned u.s. copyright laws which will get pedia says internet freedom. in the world bank has lowered its outlook on however the russian economy is expected to grow faster than most countries three and a half percent this year doing it for more of that and other stories in our business sports.

it's ten pm this is r t live from moscow my name is kevin and well welcome to you the top story moscow's vying to do everything it can to make sure the u.n. security council doesn't sanction a military intervention in syria that pledge from russia's top diplomat as he wrapped up a briefing about twenty eleventh's foreign policy paper all over is at the foreign ministry. russia blames both the assad government and the opposition for fighting continuing in the country and moscow wants to see both sides put down their weapons and come together around the table to try and hammer out a peaceful solution to what's happening there now what was new that was said by said again lover of on wednesday is that the proposed peace talks that are being put forward by the arab league which is.