Shell's local subsidiary is the top foreign oil producer in the Niger Delta, an oil-rich region of mangroves and swamps about the size of Portugal.
In "Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta, " Ed Kashi captures the impact of the oil industry on Nigeria's environment and people since it was first discovered five decades ago.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), the main rebel group fighting for political autonomy and local resource control in the oil-producing Niger Delta region, has called off its unilateral ceasefire, just weeks after announcing the move.
ECONOMIST: A big rebel group in the Niger Delta calls off its ceasefire
The kidnapping of foreigners and wealthy Nigerians is common in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, and has become a lucrative trade for criminals.
In 2009, then-Nigerian President Musa Yar Adua granted an amnesty to thousands of militants wreaking havoc in the oil-rich Niger Delta in the south.
The kidnapping of foreigners and wealthy Nigerians is common in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, in the south of the country, and has become a lucrative trade for criminals.
BBC: Nigeria foreign workers abducted in Bauchi state - police
Muslim leader the Sultan of Sokoto recently suggested that Boko Haram members should be offered an amnesty similar to that given to militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta in 2009.
Sierra Leone made news in 2012 with eye-popping economic growth figures boosted by strong iron ore exports while in Niger it was uranium and oil exports that brought impressive growth.
Born in Warri in the oil-rich Niger Delta to a Nigerian father and German mother, as a teen Ms. Egbuna, who performs as Nneka, relocated to study anthropology at the University of Hamburg.
In early March a prominent politician who was organizing the main opposition party's electoral campaign in the oil-rich Niger Delta was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in what is widely regarded as a political killing.
According to some press reports the attack at Abiteye in Delta State was carried out by oil thieves angry that the military Joint Task Force in the Niger Delta is succeeding in its effort to stop illegal oil bunkering in the area, thereby jeopardising the livelihood of local bandits who often masquerade as militants.
ECONOMIST: A big rebel group in the Niger Delta calls off its ceasefire
Kidnappings of expatriate oil workers in the Niger Delta region by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) earlier this year have also increased concerns surrounding the security of the county's energy infrastructure.
In June, up to 200 people were killed in fighting between three different groups in the oil-rich but underdeveloped Niger delta region around the town of Warri.
Ed Kashi's work in the Niger Delta documents the existential nightmare of what oil wealth means in reality.
Chinese oil companies already have interests in Niger, while Libya is looking for external partners as it opens up its energy sector to foreign investment.
Huge problems await the next government: social unrest in the oil-producing areas of the Niger Delta, grinding poverty in the north, everywhere a collapse of long-neglected infrastructure, particularly in telecommunications and electricity.
And Nigeria is one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States, which explains why the attacks by a group calling itself the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, has been blamed for rising oil prices around the world.
In a key 2009 ruling, a district court in the Netherlands declared itself "competent" to handle claims for alleged damage caused by the oil company's activities in the Niger Delta, contrary to Shell's argument that the court did not have the jurisdiction to rule on its Nigerian subsidiary.
BBC: Shell in Nigeria: Dutch court to rule in pollution case
Local activists in the Niger Delta, which produces most of Nigeria's oil, regularly kidnap oil workers for ransom or smash installations, sometimes seriously cutting production.
His immediate problem is the Niger Delta, the source of almost all of Nigeria's oil wealth and the battleground for numerous local wars, with rival groups fighting for resources and the largesse of the big oil companies operating there.
So, Ofeibea, the group that's holding the oil workers is called the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, and it's fairly new in Nigeria, but well organized, I gather.
Friday night it gave foreign oil interests in Nigeria, especially Shell, which the main operator in Niger Delta, till midnight Friday to leave the area or face what one commander called total war.
Militant groups have for years waged a violent campaign in the Niger Delta, demanding that local people see more of the benefits of the region's oil wealth - there is also a huge problem of oil theft in the area.
This week's violence in the north comes on top of unceasing violence in the southern Niger Delta region, where an insurgency by militants demanding a bigger share of the country's oil wealth continues to disrupt oil exports.
Last August Malabu sued Shell, accusing it of colluding with Nigerian officials to snatch its juicy oil prospecting license, OPL 245, a giant block in the deepwater area of the Niger Delta, with estimated reserves of more than 1 billion barrels.
Continued disruptive militancy would undermine Jonathan domestically and internationally by making it seem that, despite his Ijaw credentials and political experience in the Niger Delta, Jonathan cannot manage the volatile region for the benefit of the domestic economy and international oil markets.
Last month, the Movement for Emancipation of the Niger-Delta (MEND) -- an ethnically-based militia operating in Nigeria's oil-rich southern region -- launched "Operation Dark February" (which carried over into March), promising to bring about an "Armageddon in the Nigerian petroleum history".
In the Niger Delta region, his homeland, where militants have long campaigned for a greater share of their land's oil revenues, he vowed to build on Mr Yar'Adua's amnesty of last summer.
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