Wasiu Balogun is a scholar of energy security, global developments and maritime affairs. He is currently working on crue oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal fuel trade in the Gulf of Guinea as a study in criminal convergence and organised crime using the 'enterprise-value chain' theory. The enterprise-value chain model sees the tripod of crude oil theft, petro-piracy and illegal trade in fuel as an organised crime; a well-structured economic activity whose business philosophy hinges on the provision of illegal goods and services. Such activities exist because the legitimate marketplace has limited capacity to meet the needs of potential customers. Within the framework, the study identifies, and analyses the dynamics of an overarching relationship charateristed by competition, cooperation and contestation among the different players in the illegal-maritime industry as well as mutually beneficial relationships between formal and informal energy-maritime economies. Such a relationship is critical to understanding both the nature of the business and its sustaining value chain. The study concludes that current energy-maritime security architecture in the Gulf of Guinea does not capture the organised, enterprise nature of illicit offshore and onshore activities and its sustaining value chain, which highlights its inherent limitation viz-a-viz the region's quest for energy-maritime security.