The Nigerian Navy has intensified its campaign against illegal oil refining in Rivers State, disabling infrastructure at an abandoned refining site and foiling an attempt by suspected operators to restart illicit activities in Abua/Odual Local Government Area.
The latest operation, conducted by personnel of Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) SOROH on September 6, 2026, resulted in the recovery of about 350 litres of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO) from the Okolomade general area.
The operation followed intelligence indicating that suspected illegal refiners were attempting to reactivate operations at the site.
The Navy said the suspected operators fled when they sighted the naval personnel, abandoning the illegally refined AGO and two wheelbarrows believed to have been used to move the product.
In a separate operation, NNS SOROH personnel returned to a previously disrupted illegal refining location in the Ogbogolo area, where they destroyed the remaining capacity of the site to support further illicit activities.
The metallic ovens, storage tanks and other infrastructure found at the location were rendered unusable, effectively preventing suspected criminal operators from quickly returning to the site.
The Navy said the operations reflected a deliberate strategy to go beyond disrupting illegal refining activities and target the infrastructure that enables such operations to resume.
The approach is aimed at breaking the cycle in which illegal refining sites are temporarily abandoned following security interventions and subsequently reactivated by criminal operators.
Illegal refining remains a major challenge in the Niger Delta, with its activities linked to crude oil theft, environmental degradation, revenue losses and threats to legitimate petroleum operations.
By targeting refining infrastructure, security agencies are seeking to increase the difficulty and cost of re-establishing illicit operations while disrupting the networks involved in the illegal petroleum trade.
The recovery of the illegally refined AGO and the disabling of the facilities also demonstrate the importance of sustained intelligence-led operations in preventing criminal operators from rebuilding their activities after previous security interventions.
The latest action by NNS SOROH comes amid continuing efforts by the Nigerian Navy and other security agencies to protect Nigeria’s oil assets, curb crude oil theft and dismantle illegal refining networks across the Niger Delta.
The Navy’s strategy of permanently disabling illegal refining infrastructure could prove significant in making disrupted sites less attractive to criminal operators and reducing the ability of illicit petroleum networks to repeatedly regenerate their activities.
