Oil embezzlement and pipeline vandalism in niger delta and Nigeria’s economic development from 2000 to 2017

The aim of this study was to examine oil embezzlement and pipeline vandalism in Niger Delta and Nigeria’s Economic Development from 2000 to 2017.The specific objectives were to: examine the loss oil revenue from oil embezzlement and pipeline vandalization in Niger Delta has affected economic development in Nigeria from 2000 to 2017 and highlight the quantity of barrels of oil lost from the Niger Delta region and its relationship to development of the economy in Nigeria from 2000 to 2017. The analytical tools used were descriptive statistics, mean and Z - test. The study found out that lost oil revenue from oil embezzlement and pipeline vandalization in Niger Delta has significantly affected the development of economy in Nigeria from 2000 to 2017 and the quantity of barrels of oil lost from the Niger Delta region has also affected the economic development in Nigeria from 2000 to 2017. The following recommendations were made for the study: integrate the communities into the oil economy, so that they will have proprietary interest in the protection of oil installations, the oil pipelines should be buried deeper while communities should be contracted to protect oil pipelines and there should be better protection of oil pipelines.