Aminu Hassan, the force commander of the Joint Task Force (South-South), Operation Delta Safe, says the fight against oil thieves will continue until the criminals surrender, admitting that they are difficult to dislocate.

Mr Hassan said this while giving a situation report of its operation to curb oil theft and illegal refining activities.

The report was given during an assessment tour organised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC) on illegal crude oil refining sites in Rivers.

On tour were NNPC’s group managing director Mele Kyari, the chief of defence staff, Lucky Irabor, the minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, and Gbenga Komolafe, the CEO of Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC).

Mr Hassan explained that the fight against oil thieves was difficult because of the Niger Delta terrain. He expressed concerns about the region, noting that “if you start the journey in the morning, you will get to the area in the evening” and that “when the illegal refiners are chased out from a particular area, they will relocate to another area.”

The JTF, a multi-agency operation, covers 10 states with the collaboration of 12 security agencies.

“The way we are working is the same way the criminals involved in the illegal refining are working, but we are ahead of them. Presently we are into mechanical clearance, dismantling of storage tanks and removal of tapping points,” said Mr Hassan.

He added, “A lot of the illegal refineries are down. We will continue to disconnect them. They have a network of pipelines that transit through the bushes with connected typical reservoirs, which in some cases continue to spill and waste. The reservoirs have been destroyed. If you do not destroy the tanks completely, they will reconstruct and continue.”

According to Hassan, Trans Niger Pipeline and Aferomu in Delta have been identified as the critical areas, and efforts are ongoing to clear them of oil thieves.

“In Bayelsa, the critical areas are Okarki area, Igbabele and Ibinebiri communities; the good news is that Okarki area has been deactivated,” he noted. “In Rivers, within zone five, we have the Ibaa community, which is critical after Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) pointed it out as a priority area to start with.”

(NAN)