Along the Isaka/Ogoloma River in Rivers State, the Nigerian Navy has discovered an illegal refinery that can produce more than two million litres of automotive petrol oil (AGO) per day.
In order to combat oil theft and illicit refining activities in the Niger Delta, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, the Chief of Naval Staff, ordered the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Pathfinder to destroy over 500 cooking drums of crude oil using a swamp buggy.
Suspected oil thieves used the illegal refinery to syphon crude oil for refining. It had a pipeline connected to a nearby oil wellhead run by Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
The location was discovered following the Navy’s intensive use of intelligence and surveillance.
Commodore Cajethan Nnabuchi Aniaku, Commander of NNS Pathfinder, revealed that the oil thieves had adopted a novel strategy: they were refining stolen crude oil into AGO and other byproducts using drums.
The ease of assembly and disassembly of the drums made this method advantageous. Thus far, more than 500 drums and multiple excavated pits and ovens have been destroyed in the ongoing operation, which has the potential to produce more than “two hundred million square od AGO (fuel) daily”.
Commodore Aniaku issued a warning to those engaged in illicit refining operations, stressing the Navy’s continued commitment to safeguarding the vital infrastructure of the country.
He said: “In line with the Chief of Naval Staff’s directive to clear all illegal refining sites, we discovered a massive illegal refining site in the Ogoloma area.
“Our personnel moved in with a swamp buggy and found that the oil thieves had shifted from using large metal pans to drums, which are cheaper and easier to hide.
“This operation is ongoing, and we will not relent in our efforts to destroy these illegal sites.”
