from some stupid. stunts on t.v. dot com. it's five thirty pm on monday here in moscow you're just in time for the r.t. headlines now russia mourns the victims of a devastating flash flood in the cross in the region it's now killed over one hundred seventy and affected almost thirty five thousand it's quickly becoming the area's worst ever natural disaster. special envoy kofi annan sells peace to the syrian leadership while damascus points fingers at what it calls america's devastating role in the civil conflict in. moscow adds criticism to the western approach to the arab spring saying promotion of quote air strike democracy is aimed

at nothing but maintaining influence. by those are the headlines on r.t. now eldorado for some hell for others and extra trouble to nigeria to explore its regional battle over oil this is art. it's like an island cut off from everywhere accessible only by helicopter. bank and more than two hundred kilometers off the coast of nigeria a floating factory that is unique in the world as big as eight football pitches it's a foretaste of what the search for oil will become. this enormous trough is itself at the heart of a wide a system that consists of searching for oil ever deeper under the sea and also

further and further from the explosive situation that prevails on lands. submarines platforms and drilling vessels on a map a tiny rectangle named back. here as the owner of a few kilometer square that represents a new eldorado. in the center floating like a queen bee a belly full of a treasure that the whole world covets is the flagship of the oil company. and i have your ideas. if there's a door. on akpo we are far from everywhere but everything is checked. all. this and you check all the facts to see

how it all back to the sort of community go up even the people you know you've been working with her for years you have to search their backs and even those including the head of the station. and what are you searching for mainly. to tissue anything that's about them like drugs guns knives. and this kind of thing else that's behind the. 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 insult that 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 link together by pipelines that run through the mangroves and the sea in every direction. today nigeria is the

largest oil producing country in africa the scene of a banquet between companies. all. after arriving by helicopter and after the regulation search patrick one of the two managers takes over from his colleague john francois his back to back in offshore speak. with an engineer turned manager of a nigerian father and a maltese mother. is one of the rare employees of the company to hold such a post. you've got plenty on their schedule to produce one hundred sixty three thousand barrels a day for next month we will work with dealing with large volumes of this it which is very very flammable is more flammable than normal oil and also will have large volumes of gas at high pressure. it's a look at the system so we kind of leaks if we have meat and there's

a sparkle source of ignition 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. don't you so much for we have to be careful here permanently on the alert to what you ask you because of because you can't escape. the three hundred meters long and all but this one is where over story starts. the name is the floating what are the storage offloading units woods is everything because. it's a unit that floats and it has capacity for production and storage we also 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 we're

currently. like i said while the whole deck level so below. us now we have tons so one of the problems that we have vessels of this size laundress and. choice corrosion of the decks and corrosion corrosion at this level. it would be difficult to repair because just underneath we have tons of oil so it will be rather impossible to cut a part out too well whatever because of the risk of exposure. is another lifeboat here and then of course we have. life rafts just in case of us so anybody. you say has more than enough means to. just stay. for the first time we've been allowed access to this incredibly technological and highly risky structure. on board a two hundred forty men so completely lost in the interlacing of pipes that you

almost never meet anyone the f.p.s. as a citadel of troops 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 mcconnell construction protected by the navy another permanent surveillance from countries cameras. a technological exploit certainly but in the context of political paranoia. good morning. to nigerian navy patrol boat stunt gone twenty four hours a day under the odors of antonio djoko patrol rulebook. 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. but. you. always look so here we have the eye mucking about and so there are operations center where we monitor the whole of the echo field. with this radar to come into it which allows us to check all the boats arriving. can the two of you to know what boat of the riving and especially to pick up any suspect record that wasn't expected to enter the field i think in all these cameras they monitor all the accesses here. and inside the u.s. so with this. reciprocal to move to secure but that's a lot of security measures for extracting oil what's how do you get oil and. so on this on this is what are the measures required to nigeria of the day considering the threats that exist as a nigerian the ordering the militias and turned this contest you know as

votes intruding in the maritime exclusion zone. doesn't this one item that they are now 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 money no making your ruler sure 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 taking place 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 weren't for the plant ameri ari would be a typical little village. with hearts and shacks with palm leaf roofs streets of san news it 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. new york dollars but no one not at the community nearby you know about it i mean anybody from the company. and this you.

know. when you come up with these guys know what that all looks that. isn't going to follow every day study lou did not is top one this is no big. 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. sometimes sometimes. nigerian people work for the companies yes there was a little boy with us how. about that at the white men he says but it's very

odd you. come on just like there are gambling blocks from us out of our dog. and as a supreme insult naturally there's no gas in the village to smoke the fish and cooking think of the wood from the forest. above the terminal on the chimneys that burn off the gas nonstop to prevent overpressure they tell us. that's a lot of use to the villages of oppression. that. is religion. economy to wit i did some of that fish imports. thinking doesn't know what that because of the devices it. has because i didn't doubt for it and i said i didn't know what. that does is it not discuss the

deniability i think intuitively about why what i want to add not up into a need to repeat what i did think of what the. offshore from the village b.s. p.s.o. engineers and technicians continue extracting oil far from land because that's the job of the heart of the extraordinary machine the end of a pipe and in a small jar the famous brown liquid. the world's holy grail you might say. so but this is the oil. still 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 out

that's relatively easy to do so it comes out of the top it's what they call the blob of nigeria. so this caller think we have to go deeper and deeper to find it today or future major projects a situation of very great depth. so it's going to require immense technology. more and more to. the logical evolution to go would get the oil even deeper. with the input from them of course other aspects of very important for the commercialization of the sort of the case against you mustn't see i mean i mix your water and oil because water doesn't cost much and oil costs a lot the company much shows every time we load our oil product onto a tank we have to be sure it contains

a minimum of water. was up and i say the blood of nigeria because it's their role material it's their problem going up what is it we're here to help them exploited and for me it's what it's the fruit of their history just what we spoke of their history because if they do it it's because of their millions of years of history. because we have. been there what. and i hope it will allow them to fuel their economy just you know in an efficient white my this 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. may be good for maybe you should cut that system but. 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 some of them but doesn't surprise

me. so i back on land we allude military surveillance to film something that's totally forbidden to film on pain or rest and major problems yeah. yeah. you know if these were. the runs the protest movement to denounce the environmental damage caused by the all companies wants to show. i think the effort that's where we move. on if well and we will move into i knew we could come close though this is not been done it's in that there fifty it's to the elite. the end of a pipeline lost in the wild an enormous blaze the stench of gases insupportable the heat at five hundred meters is already unbearable i was thinking it was

a forbidden guess like that yes that there was a quote brewing. guys and that's in two thousand and five but. i'm not on that drug i'm sure but our government. does not have any political weight. so they're going to know the thread was against the laws of our country it is it is like a monster so how it smells stinks and the sound. like this is the most i was down there months this is worse than the most you can. see this from a distance. right now you can see. i mean that this is. all. there. everywhere i did write about the place. it's about the. time to put them back in the city is about the i mean it's funny it's hard. becoming

like your momma. yeah. yeah. experts say that the gas burned off 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 the us go up in smoke they. say most of the pressure in the pipe. in reality companies make so much money from the oil they don't even care about the gas they pump. at the same time. these massive burn offs also create acid rain so that the water from the sky is no longer drinkable. garrison in charge of site surveillance court will have a visit where you spend several hours negotiating bargaining explaining ourselves to the higher ups over the telephone. chalice teams reputation and his work with amnesty international in particular allow us to get out of trouble. to.

a former farm worker celestin 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 oil 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 yes i did visit. several music. one of our company that got that but the results is a bit and. walk in nigeria company is now the much as possible. of course brazil.

because they know that one common. sense but the. problem is that this is a. protected permanently escorted celestin has no car no address and no children anyone who hinders or production in nigeria is under threat of death and. the village of a creek. is even crossed by the highway of pipes that don't even buried.

you could. take twice before sufficient suckage watch. put up on here still in the theater. now running down to do or rush on to decide to do all of these areas there was a day we would call forms that we saw fire bonnie want everybody we don't know show came to. all of the advice you artist has all dead he sat on the trees fell dead. on here we used to fish we will fish in no fish don't want to golly he's

gone down 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 they are always afraid to before damages and composition. was all you could. 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 motionless vessel 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. an apocalyptic day in harsh conditions a few months back a crane dragged three men into the sea one dying. thanks for the nigerians on board the wages are you know you earn a good living in oil whether you're black or white. it's a big country they've got a big bunch of fried you know that want to. tell you it's

a big country i bet yes. it. would be possibly. not about you i don't know but. on the floor below we can clearly see a pipe plunging into a pool the heart of the ship. this is the i'm going to call court fix to the sea back. 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 over the drilling been done it and the engineers have a very pretty nickname for it. but. 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 head and ridges and charges that was based on you since you have all this must stay here i know. i.

got my. face. yeah. yeah. so if it was a. christmas tree they'd be there days if i didn't spot for them why this is it's what. has been done with the price i feel like there were some two boats about barry's going up we will be to go to. my broken foot if i. could do this but. this is. twenty feet first must be. there so we started to go on a seven mile run by. some day so. you have the money back when you best. your. three years on these things so it's. not easy. with those goes to do you make.

sure celestin is continue his crusade and he takes us to an incredible spot swallowed up by the undergrowth for. the birds or where. i would read in bed at the . door where. i wear number one. through june that there are fifty six. if you. specify what i want them to do in that that. i'm not so bad about yourself tell us but as i speak don't like my place you know going to not do it i've been a course. you can see how bonbon used to think like you can see ya bone don't you going to look like one orphanages. ahdaf that is all i money i'm

bugles after you finish she's now banned under going it is not right.