🇳🇬 Nigerian Navy Deactivates 70 Illegal Refinery Sites, Seizes 400,000 Litres of Stolen Crude in July Crackdown

 

The Nigerian Navy says its Special Forces dismantled dozens of illegal refining operations across the Niger Delta in July, confiscating hundreds of thousands of litres of stolen crude oil.

Zig Diaries Defence
Date: Friday, 8 August 2025
Time: 07:40 WAT
Location: 📍 Abuja, Nigeria

Navy’s July operations under Operation Delta Sanity cripple over 70 illegal refining sites and seize over 400,000 litres of stolen crude oil in Niger Delta.

The Nigerian Navy has announced the deactivation of no fewer than 70 illegal refinery sites and the confiscation of over 400,000 litres of stolen crude oil across the Niger Delta in July 2025 alone.

Director of Naval Information, Commodore Ayiwuyor Adams-Aliu, disclosed this in Abuja on Friday, noting that the intensified crackdown was part of Operation Delta Sanity — an ongoing campaign to curb crude oil theft and other forms of economic sabotage in Nigeria’s maritime domain.

According to Adams-Aliu, the operations also uncovered and destroyed 120 dugout pits, illegal storage facilities, and various equipment used in crude oil theft and refining across Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, and Akwa Ibom States.

In total, oil thieves were denied access to 411,400 litres of crude oil, 87,825 litres of illegally-refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), 72,000 litres of Dual Purpose Kerosene (DPK), and 21,900 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

Key operational highlights included:

·        July 4: Illegal refining sites in Ogba, Egbema, and Ndoni (Rivers State) deactivated, with over 66,000 litres of suspected crude and 40,000 litres of AGO seized.

·        July 14: Multiple arrests in Akwa Ibom and Delta States, uncovering smuggling attempts to Cameroon and underground reservoirs holding thousands of litres of stolen crude.

·        July 22–23: Two large-scale illegal operations dismantled in Biseni Community, Bayelsa, with over 450,000 litres of crude oil recovered.

Adams-Aliu said personnel also intercepted several wooden boats used for smuggling PMS and other petroleum products, arresting six suspects.

He reaffirmed the Navy’s resolve under Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, to stamp out oil theft and support increased national oil output. The Navy’s efforts, he noted, have contributed to Nigeria surpassing 1.8 million barrels per day in crude production, as reported by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

The announcement comes against the backdrop of a Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) report showing Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of oil worth ₦16.25 trillion to theft between 2009 and 2020. NEITI noted a sharp drop in losses from 36.69 million barrels in 2022 to 7.68 million barrels in 2023, attributing the improvement to tighter resource management and enhanced security.

🏷️Tags: Nigerian Navy, Operation Delta Sanity, Crude Oil Theft, Niger Delta, Maritime Security

#NigerianNavy #OperationDeltaSanity #CrudeOilTheft #NigerDelta