EFFORTS to rid Delta and Rivers States of crude oil theft have again yielded results as a combined team of the Oil Facility Surveillance team and the Joint Task Force (JTF) destroyed over 221 illegal refineries at Isaba, Isapama, Asugbu and Eleme communities.
Also, 15 camps where the illegal act was carried out were destroyed.
Officials of the pipeline surveillance team yesterday listed detailed actions taken to end oil theft in the state. They said the move had reduced oil theft to its barest minimum, resulting in maximum oil output for the oil firms.
They explained that in the past when crude oil was pumped from Escravos to Warri refinery, only 65 per cent got to the refinery but that now since they resumed operations, the refinery was 98 per cent oil crude supplies via pipelines.
Aside from the destruction of the illegal refineries, equipment used in the illicit activities including pumping machines, pipes, boats, others were destroyed by the combined team.
Several persons whom the task force refused to disclose their names were also arrested and had been handed over to the police.
The surveillance team alerted on huge arms buildup in Escravos area and said that when the team attempted to storm some known illegal refining points in the Escravos area they came under heavy attacks but that the situation was doused by men of the JTF.
The team disclosed that illegal refiners were now moving out of Gbaramatu kingdom where they were previously concentrated to Warri and Ondo axis due the activities of the surveillance team.
The spokesman of 2nd Brigade, Port Harcourt, Major Michael. O. Etete, said illegal refining site, which was almost the size of a standard soccer pitch and located behind a filling station, was used for the storage of crude oil and the illegal refining of petroleum products.
Etete who paraded two suspects arrested at the site, Edwin Nnana and Bernard Eze, explained that the filling station operator who was on the run, was supposed to sell petroleum products to the of the public, but only loaded tankers from its “refinery” to distributors who sell in the black market.
Etete who said the raid on the filling station followed a tip-off explained that a tanker filled with 33, 000 litres of fuel were recovered at the filling station.
According to him, efforts by the JTF to arrest the owner of the filling station was on going. He said a fire fighting truck loaded with diesel, and more than 10 vehicles, including buses that the suspects used in transporting petroleum products were seized.
The truck loaded with illegally refined petroleum product was driven to a site that has been converted for the destruction of illegal acquired petroleum products along East-West Road where it was set ablaze by the JTF.
However, the suspects feigned ignorance of the illegal activities going at the filling station. One of them, Eze, alleged that the owner of the filing station only assigned him the task of driving the trucks to designated destinations.
Whereas Nnanna claimed that he was contacted to carry out some services.
In the same vein, the JTF has destroyed an illegal refinery operated by a suspected filling station owner at Eleme, Rivers State.
