Why has the ‘black’ market in the Gulf of Guinea endured?

ABSTRACT This study seeks to investigate the resilience of energy black market in the Gulf of Guinea. The objective of the study is carried out in a theoretical elucidation grounded in qualitative empirical research. The study argues that the regional ‘black’ market of the trivet of crude oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal trade in fuel is an organised business crime; a well-structured illegal enterprise which thrives on inadequate energy infrastructure and corruption in the region. The key ingredients, processes and institutions of the ‘black’ economy are constructed within socio-economic networks, exist in an overlap, and operate in a constantly mutating crime environment. The study concludes that business–network–environment nexus of crime provides a justifiable explanation for the elasticity of the crude economy in the Gulf of Guinea, with the enterprise’s socio-economic infrastructure enhancing its susceptibility as much as it reinforces its resilience and should be the fulcrum of targeted measures.