Navy destroys 10 illegal refining sites in Bayelsa

The Nigerian Navy Forward Operating Base in Brass, Bayelsa State, has destroyed 10 illegal refinery sites with a total capacity of refined 100,000 litres of stolen crude in Nembe Local Government Area of the state.

The Commanding Officer, Forward Operating Base (FORMOSO), Capt. Ifeanyichukwu Mabeokwu, who disclosed this to newsmen, said the Nigerian Navy was poised to ensure illegal refining site and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta were decimated.

He said, “My team and I are here to carry out deactivation operation in this illegally refining site.

“As you can see, there is a large one with over 10 refining units, it has cumulatively about 80 litres of illegally refined AGO, and 100,000 of stolen crude oil respectively.

“Essentially the illegally refining site is hidden away at the core of the Nembe creek and it took us the deployment of high resolution of drones to discover this site.

“Now it has been discovered, we are going to do everything possible to see that this does not exist and it will seize from this moment. The discovery was made early this morning (Thursday) at about 0630-700 hours,” he said.

He added that on arrival at the illegal refining sites, they met all the oven still active.

He said that the Navy would continue to facilitate a conducive environment for legitimate businesses to flourish and contribute to the nation’s economic progress.