The Eastern Naval Command, ENC, of the Nigerian Navy has deactivated 60 illegal refinery sites in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region between January to April 2024.
Flag Officer Commanding of ENC, Rear Admiral Saheed Akinwande also disclosed that they seized and destroyed about 293,900 litres of illegally refined AGO during the period.
Speaking to journalists in his office in Calabar, the FOC also stated that they recovered 412,000L of stolen crude oil.
The FOC said Operation Delta Sanity was responsible for the feat recorded within four months.
“Operation Delta Sanity has recorded some remarkable achievements since its launch by the Chief of Naval Staff in January this year.
“Some of these achievements include but are not limited to increase in Sea patrol time to about 1,752 hours and a cumulative patrol time of about 45,540 and 30 hours across the bases by boats and air assets respectively.
“There have been robust riverine patrol and clearance operations resulting in the arrest of several suspects, destruction of several wooden boats and recovery of illegal bunkering equipment,” he said.
He also maintained that navy anti-smuggling efforts had boosted, explaining that it led to the interception of smuggled parboiled rice, as well as petroleum products.
According to him, “as a result of the navy’s intensive and deliberate actions against illegal bunkering, there has been improved crude oil production capacity by 5.85 per cent from 1.55mbpd to 1.64mbpd as attested to by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
“The operational objectives of OP Delta Sanity is to further curtail the activities of Illegal oil bunkering and pipeline vandalism syndicates and other crimes in the nation’s Niger Delta Region.
“It has denied illegal bunkering syndicates freedom of action, including the dismantling of several Illegal Refining Sites and arrest of suspects/vessels alike.”