Nigeria is the largest crude oil producing country in Africa, the sixth petroleum giant in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the eleventh in the world (Okodudu 2007:10). But it gained world class fame only in the year 2000 through oil production in its Niger Delta region. The scholarship of this essay is how the region attained this feat at the beginning of the twenty – first century. The work also documents the seventeen giant oil fields that made it possible and the aggressive drilling campaigns in the region. Other topics addressed include the oil and gas reserves in the Niger Delta, crude oil production from 2000 to 2006 and its export values in US dollars.
