By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
The Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Pathfinder, has uncovered and dismantled 16 illegal refineries with capacity to refine 9.6million litres of crude oil around Elem-krakama community in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State on 3 April 2024.
14 suspects were also arrested, including a woman at the illegal refining site, who allegedly attached 14inches pipe to siphoned over 210metric tonnes of crude oil from wellhead 15 within OML18 operated by NNPC Ltd.
The Commander NNS Pathfinder further stated that “We uncovered 16 cooking pots within this illegal refining site and each of them contains about 600 thousand litres, which is quite huge. “They were tapping right from the oil wellhead belonging to NNPC Ltd.
Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, Chief of Naval Staff, has mandated us and we are not deterred, 14 suspects were handed over to NSCDC for prosecution on 4 April 2024.”