Major oil companies are no strangers to operating in dangerous environments. But the Niger Delta takes security concerns to a new level. One main militant group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, has been responsible for dozens of kidnappings and attacks on oil rigs that have dramatically slowed oil production, which has been as low as 800,000 barrels a day (a far cry from the 2010 target of 4 million barrels). The group has been so effective in the past that its tactics have helped push up world oil prices. Financial Times reporter Michael Peel travelled the river in search of the heavily-armed militants and found a trigger-happy group, but also a people eager to talk pollution, poverty and their willingness to fight big oil to protect their land.