JTF destroys 150 illegal refineries – Vanguard
November 5, 2009 by Bunmi Awolusi
Sector I Command of the Joint Task Force (JTF) has destroyed 150 illegal refineries and arrested 50 suspected oil thieves, including a Lebanese national and three oil vessels in Delta State.
The JTF also recovered over 2,000 drums of illegally refined petroleum products and 16 fuel tankers loaded with refined products worth millions of naira and 10 other assorted cars and buses used for the illegal operations.
Sector I Commander, Colonel Jamil Sarham, who made these disclosures in Warri, yesterday, said the new trend of operating illegal refineries was as a result of the inability of oil thieves to move stolen products through the waterways to the high seas due to effective blockade mounted by the agency on the waterways.
