FOURTEEN individuals were taken into custody by the Nigerian Navy for supposedly participating in unauthorized oil activities in Elem Krakama community of the Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Additionally, the Navy discovered a prohibited oil processing location that could make more than 9.6 million liters of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, daily.
During an operation overseen by Commander Commodore Desmond Igbo of the Nigerian Navy Ship, Pathfinder, on Thursday, the Navy reported confiscating three wooden boats with a capacity of 70 metric tonnes.
Igbo, while showing journalists the location in the creeks, mentioned that the suspects were taking crude from a tapped oil wellhead from Oil Mining Lease (OML-18) operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited in the area.
He mentioned that the wellhead was compromised by the suspected oil thieves within the same oil field.
The naval leader pointed out that the site has 16 cooking pots capable of containing 6,000 liters of diesel each, and emphasized that the Navy will persist in stopping illegal oil refining activities.
He remarked, “This is Elem Krakama in Degema LGA of Rivers State. We have come here to ensure that this oil stealing will not continue.
“We have about 16 cooking pots and some of them contain about 600,000 liters. It is very huge, as you can see where they are tapping it from, right from the oil wellhead.
“It comes out the way water comes from the tap. We have made arrests; we arrested about 14 of them in the act of stealing the crude and also illegally refining this crude.
“Behind me is oil wellhead 15 belonging to OML-18 of NNPCL. You can see a very big 14-inch hose connected illegally to this oilwell head 15.
“They are transferring it to this big wooden boat also known as the Cotonou boat. The boats contain 70 metric tonnes of crude oil, the crude is still there, they will connect it to the reservoirs through the four-inch hose and from there they will start cooking it.”
The NHS Pathfinder boss added, “We have four of these wooden boats in this camp. The cooking pots also contain about 1.5 million liters of AGO. This is not good for our country, not good for the economy.”
Igbo highlighted that the achievement was in line with the directive by the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, to identify economic saboteurs in eradicating oil theft in the Niger Delta.
Commodore Igbo said both the arrested suspects and seized crude would be handed over to the appropriate agencies for prosecution.
