it's like an island cut off from everywhere accessible only by helicopter. two hundred kilometers off the coast of nigeria a floating factory that is unique in a world as big as eight football pitches it's a foretaste of what 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. submarines platforms and drilling vessels on a map a tiny rectangle named act. of a few kilometer 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 company token. i don't have your ideas. if.

we are far from everywhere but everything is checked. and you check all the facts. all the bikes through this little community go up even the people you know you've been working with for years you have to search their backs and even those including the head of the station. such information. to tissue anything that's bound by drugs guns knives. this kind of thing also 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 with large volumes of it which is very very flammable is more flammable. and also we have large volumes of gas at high pressure. it's a kind of a system so we kind of leak. if we have meat and there's a sparkle sourceforge mission the next thing you would have a fire and then you put us at risk yes everybody 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 for to you because you can't escape. the three hundred meters alone and don't go. over storage tanks.

storage and offloading units woods says everything because. it's a unit that floats and it has capacity for production and storage. a process we don't stop but we sit and explore. first ask 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 times so one of the problems that we have vessels of this size. clothes and of the decks. isn't corrosion at this level. it would be difficult to reach because just from the needs we have. so it will be possible to cut some plots out. because of the risk of exposed. in another life and then we have.

just this with anybody. he said was more than enough means to. just state. for the first time we've been allowed access to dish 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 s.p.s. as a signal of tubes fowles elbows through which flows 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.

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 i'm all about sense of their marine operations center where we monitor the whole of the arklow field. with this radar. which allows us to check all the boats arriving. can but who are you to know what boat 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 come to me to secure but that's a lot of security measures for extracting oil. so on this on this is where the measures required to nigeria considering the threats that exist it's very much a jury the bordering the magnificence. 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 the other 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. didn't want. every did by did loading gust to order forty called new york dollars but not the one that upset the community nearby you know about it i mean anybody from the company from. this you. know. when you come up with these guys know that all looks that. twenty four was a very deep study lou did not install one this. in 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 when i. wanted to do was get

a little we took our own. metal shop. and . sometimes sometimes. nigerian people work for the companies yes now they've got the little boys with us. spotted at the white men he says but it's very odd you are using all the little help of some of us but there are differing blocks from us that all of us by the dog . and the 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. these villages. economy to wit i do some of that fish imports i would you would. think it doesn't know what that because of the devices it. is in as well as i did out. there what. that does is not discuss the deniability i think it will be laid out in your mouth about why what i wanted not up to him to buy. i didn't know what the. official from the village the s.p.s. the engineers and technicians continue extract oil far from land because that's the jewel 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. that's where 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. emotional evolution to go and get the oil even deep profit.

of course other aspects of very important for the commercialization of this sort of . 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. i 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. 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 these with. the protest movement to denounce the environmental damage caused by the all companies wants to show. i think that's where we move.

we will move. from closed so 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 sounds. like this is the most was done the most this is well done the most you can. see this from a distance. right now.

i mean this is. really everywhere i did the right to but the. thing that just. is funny it's. becoming like. yeah. yeah. experts say that they can spend in nigeria which by itself be sufficient to satisfy the energy needs of the whole continent of africa billions of cubic meters of the source in the bowels of vietnam up in smoke a. famous overpressure in the pond. in reality the companies make so much money from the oil 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 we spent several hours negotiating bargaining explaining ourselves to the higher ups of 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 most of the movement for the survival of the ogoni people its founder the writer can sorrow. denounced both the dictatorship and power in the eighty's and the ravages caused by shell the largest of the all companies present in nigeria. in a sham trial in which he 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. one. of the results is of the. walk in nigeria companies are the ones as possible. because they know that when government. demands other companies. programs that this is a. check to permanently escorted synesthete has no car no address and no children anyone who hinders or production in nigeria is under threat of death. the village of a creek. even crossed by highway of pipes that don't even very.

much the fourth official and. so forth. with up in here fear of the theater. now running down to

do or not to decide to do all of these areas. there was a day we would all forms if we saw all the evidence we don't know show came to. all of the advice shortest has all dead he sat on the trees our dead. on here we used to fish we will fishing no fish don't want to go this is condemned for ever one day spiel i shall discover doubts he's been he's very. large do we see it is so with us because the fleet damages on composition.

we mustn't lump everyone together not all the companies behave or have behaved as badly a shell in nigeria. it's just the worst one amongst them. offshore total allows us to go from installation to installation. jack ryan is a motion to 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 and therefore pockets are a further two thousand meters below the seabed. and apocalyptic day in condition a few months back a crane dragged three men into the sea one. of the nigerians on board the wages are unique and a good living in oil whether you're black.

so big. it's a big country i bet yes. i don't know but. on the floor below we can clearly see a pipe plunging into the pool of the ship. this is the i'm going to call court fix to the seabed. inside the slide the rods that were drilled down to the deposit.

and the oil has reached. they install a sort of giant fowls 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 charges that was based on a civil response to. my. face . for it was. christmas tree the big day to fight for. this is the. price i'm going to go back seventh son to fires going up we will be put to. good

investment. twenty feet first my street. so we started. by. day so. you have the money back when you bet. your. three years on he's. not. with those those to be. sure celestin is continuing his crusade and he takes us to an incredible spot swallowed up by the underground or. the feds or away. i would read in bed at the. door where. i wear number one. three is that there are fifty six.

yes well where i was stuck. in that at that time outs. us but as i speak my place you know going in not doing it i've been there calls the last you can see. used to look like you can see ya bundle he's going to look like one orphanages they'll go on. a money bugles as he finishes the abundant economy it's. the right. culture is that so much as he can which of course he's running for here and he's the biggest and most expensive elections money can buy this is how many americans see what are called political action committees or super pacs.

roundup of the week's top stories on headlines at the arab league extends its observer mission in syria by a month as saudi arabia withdraw its monitors critical of the lack of progress in ending almost a year of violence. early results show has voted in favor of joining the european union this comes as yet another member of the financially stricken union romania rises up against its government's staring measures. and other stories that shape this week tension over iran's nuclear program reaches a new highs as the e.u. debates over and boil embargo and the u.s. ups its military presence in the region. and the power of the internet in action

massive online backlash over u.s. plans to expand web censorship leads to the suspension of pending anti-piracy walls . thank you for being with us i'm karen two o'clock here in moscow arab league officials say it's a team of monitors who will continue its mission to implement a peace plan to end the crisis in syria that's comes of saudi arabia decides to withdraw its contingency saying the syrian government is not following through with its agreements aimed at ending the bloodshed and as artie's sarah firth reports there's a desperate need for professional mediators in the region conflict crucially also expected to happen is that they're going to be bolstering this mission by increasing the numbers and also by.