By Gloria Attah: The Nigerian Navy says it has intensified operations against crude oil theft and illegal refining activities in the Niger Delta following the discovery of reactivated refining camps in Ndoni area of Rivers State.
In a statement issued on Friday by the Director Naval Information, Navy Captain, AA Folorunsho, the Navy said personnel of Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS PATHFINDER, carried out the operation under Operation DELTA SENTINEL, targeting criminal infrastructure allegedly linked to illegal refining activities in the area.
According to the statement signed by Navy Captain AA Folorunsho, naval operatives uncovered a network of dugout pits and storage facilities containing products suspected to be illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel.
The Navy said preliminary findings showed that about 184,000 litres of suspected illegally refined petroleum products were stored within the refining cluster.
Military authorities said the operation also exposed the continued use of abandoned oil infrastructure by criminal networks to sustain illegal refining and fuel distribution operations across the region.
The Navy noted that oil theft syndicates have increasingly adopted tactics that allow them to reactivate dismantled camps and evade security operations.
According to the statement, illegal refining activities are no longer carried out as isolated operations but now depend on interconnected supply, storage and distribution systems designed to regenerate after enforcement crackdowns.
It added that ongoing operations under Operation DELTA SENTINEL are aimed at dismantling those support networks and denying oil thieves the operational environment needed to sustain illicit activities.
The illegal refining sites and recovered products were subsequently destroyed in line with operational procedures, while surveillance and follow-up operations in the area continue.
The Nigerian Navy reaffirmed its commitment to protecting critical national assets and sustaining operations to secure Nigeria’s maritime and littoral environment from economic sabotage.
