The Nigerian Navy said its men have arrested 14 people for their alleged involvement in illegal oil bunkering in the Elem Krakama community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
The Navy also reported the discovery of an illegal oil refining complex capable of producing over 9.6 million litres of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, each day.
The Navy further stated that three wooden boats with a storage capacity of 70 metric tonnes were confiscated in an operation commanded by Commodore Desmond Igbo, Commander of the Nigerian Navy Ship Pathfinder, on Thursday.
Igbo told journalists that the suspects were syphoning crude from a tapped oil wellhead on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s Oil Mining Lease (OML-18) in the vicinity.
He said the wellhead was badly compromised by the suspected oil thieves.
Igbo, who expressed shock at the wide-scale economic sabotage going on in the location, noted that the site has 16 cooking pots with the capacity to contain 6,000 litres of diesel each while maintaining that the Navy will not relent in ensuring that illegal oil refining activities become a thing of the past.
He stated, “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 6,00 litres. 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 well head 15 belonging to OML 18, of NNPCL. You can see a very big 14-inch hose connected illegally to this oil well head 15.
“They are transferring it to this big wooden boat also known as the Cotonou boat.
“The boats contain 70 metric tons of crude oil, the crude is still there they will connect it to the reservoirs through the 4-inch hose from there they will start cooking it.”
Continuing, the NHS Pathfinder boss said, “We have four of these wooden boats in this camp. The cooking pots also contain about 1.5 million AGO. This is not good for our country not good for the economy.”