Saturday, February 10, 2024 – The Nigeria Navy has uncovered 15 massive illegal refining camps, each equipped with six cooking pots and metal storage tanks with capacity to hold about 30,000 litres of crude oil, culminating in about 2.7 million litres of crude oil illegally refined per day at Ke community in Degema, Rivers State.
Commodore Desmond Igbo, the Commander, Nigeria Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder, Port Harcourt led journalists to the illegal mining sites on Friday.
He also said troops uncovered the illegal refineries as part of the ongoing Operation Delta Sanity to combat oil theft.
“The uncovering of the illegal refining camps was made in line with the renewed mandate to combat and eliminate crude oil theft from the country.
“Upon receiving the CNS mandate, troops were
deployed, and they uncovered 15 illegal refining camps, each equipped with six
cooking pots and metal storage tanks.
“Each storage tank can hold about 30,000
litres of crude oil, culminating in about 2.7 million litres of crude oil
illegally refined in the 15 sites.
“It’s unfortunate that unpatriotic Nigerians
are stealing from the country, but we are here to stop these illegal activities
from continuing,” he said.
Igbo emphasized that the discovery of the
illegal bunkering sites was a significant breakthrough in the Federal
Government’s efforts to rid the country of oil thieves and economic saboteurs.
“The oil thieves steal the crude oil from
wellheads and then proceed to refine it into adulterated petroleum products for
sale to unsuspecting members of the public.
“It is unfortunate that these illegal
activities have continued, considering that crude oil is where Nigeria gets
most of her revenue.
“But some unscrupulous citizens engage in
this act of sabotaging the nation’s economy through their nefarious engagement
in this criminal enterprise,” he added.
The officer said that the troops had been
given the marching order to end attacks on the nation’s oil and gas facilities
and safeguard the maritime environment.
He expressed concerns that frequent
vandalism of pipelines and wellhead had further polluted and damaged the
environment.
“This is not our first time of finding and
destroying illegal refineries. We have been doing this day and night, and we
will not relent until the criminals stop.
“As a result, we have begun engaging with the communities, and the community
leaders have promised to help us in their own capacity.
“We believe people in the communities know
the people who are involved in this, and so, we are kinetically, dialoguing and
sensitizing the youths, women and their leaders,” he said.
Igbo said that however, no arrests were made
during the raid as the labourers in the illegal refineries fled the area on
sighting the advancement of naval troops on several gunboats.
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