Petroleum exploration activities started in Nigeria’s Niger Delta in the early twentieth century as part of the expansive process of primitive accumulation instituted by the British colonial administration to advance its economic interest. Since petroleum resources were discovered in commercial quantities in the region in 1956, transnational extraction corporations (including Shell, Chevron, and ExxonMobil) in collaboration with the emergent domestic compradors have plundered the resource wealth. While decades of crude oil and gas production in the region have enormously enriched the captors of the petroleum industry, the host communities have suffered debilitating economic and health consequences.

This article discusses the public health challenges resulting from this predatory political economy, along the lines of a bourgeoning body of literature that conceptualizes preventable market-driven harms as criminal.

石油勘探活动于20世纪初在尼日利亚的尼日尔三角洲开始，是英国殖民地政府为促进其经济利益而开展的原始积累扩张过程的一部分。自从1956年在该地区以商业规模发现石油资源以来，跨国开采公司（包括壳牌，雪佛龙和埃克森美孚）与新兴的国内买办机构合作，掠夺了资源财富。尽管该地区数十年来的原油和天然气生产极大地丰富了石油工业的俘获者，但东道国社区遭受了破坏性的经济和健康后果。

本文讨论了这种掠夺性政治经济学所带来的公共卫生挑战，同时涌现了一系列新兴的文学作品，这些文学作品将可预防的市场驱动的危害概念化为犯罪。