The Air Component of Operation Delta Safe at the weekend destroyed illegal oil refineries located in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Director of Public Relations and Information of the Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore, Edward Gabkwet, in a statement issued Sunday said in the last two months, Cawthorne Channel and Bille have accounted for most of the oil theft and illegal oil refining activities in Rivers State.
He said within this period, over 30 illicit refining oil sites in these two locations have been destroyed by the Land, Maritime and Air Components of Operation Delta Safe.
Gabkwet noted that these efforts would be sustained in these locations and others until oil thieves and their accomplices desist from their illegal activities.
He said: “It was a weekend of successful air strikes as the Air Component of Operation Delta Safe ramped up efforts at denying oil thieves and operators of illegal oil refining sites the opportunity to burst pipelines and operate their illegal oil refineries while damaging the environment.
“Air strikes conducted on Cawthorne Channel and Bille, located in Degema Local Government Area of Rivers State, proved successful as seven illegal refining sites were identified and destroyed.
In Cawthorne Channel, four active illegal refining sites with dug-out reservoirs and surface storage tanks suspected of containing illegally refined products were sighted on September 15, 2023. Subsequently, the sites were destroyed.”
Gabkwet added that similar air strikes were also conducted at Bille on September 16, 2023, and in the early hours of September 17, 2023, adding that three illegal oil refining sites with storage tanks and reservoirs were destroyed.
He said on one of the sites, a Cotonou boat suspected of siphoning crude oil from a flow station was engaged in several passes and destroyed.