ENUGU, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- The Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base, Igbokoda, has revealed the discovery of five illegal refineries in communities within the Araromi seaside area of Ilaje Local Government Area, Ondo State.
The military reported a total of 365,000 liters of crude oil in these refineries, which are currently being destroyed.
Navy Cpt. Wasuku Alushi, the Commanding Officer of the base, shared this information after leading a military team on a tour of the illegal refining sites.
The initiative is part of the Navy’s broader efforts against crude oil theft and related activities in the Niger Delta region, specifically in Ilaje LG of Ondo State.
Alushi stated, “Operation Delta Sanity is to sanitize the entire Niger Delta basically from the menace of crude oil thieves, illegal refiners, cultism, and other related activities.
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“Part of that mandate is to dismantle these illegal refining sites to render them inactive.”
He further explained that the illegal refining field contained five distinct refining ovens, each with a capacity of 33,000 liters for major refining and two others with a capacity of 10,000 liters.
The illegal refiners use local technology to transport the illegally refined crude, and there are networks of pipes connecting to the high sea.
Alushi emphasized the Navy’s commitment to dismantling such sites to prevent these illegal activities, describing it as an orchestrated network of engineering by criminal elements that needs to be rendered ineffective.
“Principles of fractional distillation in their own crude way and then at the end of it they come up with illegally refined HGO which they further transport, perhaps back through the sea to where the market is.
“There are networks of pipes there, most of the pipes are buried under the ground and are connected to the high sea where at night, this locally constructed boat called Cotonou boat come to lift these products for onward delivery to where the markets are.
“We came with welders and other resource persons that will help us dismantle this well-orchestrated network of engineering perpetrated here by these criminal elements so we are here to dismantle this site basically to make it ineffective“, he added.