PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Oct. 18 (UPI) — Royal Dutch Shell is selling off four of its onshore Nigerian oil blocks because of the constant theft of large volumes oil from its pipelines, officials said. The move highlights the West African state’s growing battle with criminal syndicates that are stealing an average of 100,000 barrels of crude a day. That costs the continent’s second largest economy after South Africa up to $1 billion a month, a criminal enterprise on an industrial scale that officials say rivals the narcotics trade as the world’s most lucrative crime. Oil industry officials and community workers say this massive theft of Nigeria’s key resource involves crooked politicians, security forces, oil industry personnel and oil traders. There are also militant groups operating in the oil-rich but impoverished Niger Delta, a labyrinth of swamps and creeks that provide cover for the complex network of crime. “There’s a […]