Gold smuggling no more lucrative – oil smuggling is
Sometime back the Mumbai Customs seized a couple of ships for smuggling oil. Of course they were charged with diversion of duty free oil. But oil smuggling is reported to be as much as oil import in Pakistan. As they say, it has now become a global phenomenon. And it starts right at the oil fields. There are millions of missing barrels with rampant smuggling and piracy all over the world. Illegal oil bunkering and oil piracy from fields and pipelines in the Niger Delta is estimated to be 300 kb/d. It seems Shell loses 100 kb/d in stolen oil.