Nigeria’s total oil output averaged 1.71 million barrels per day (mbpd), including condensates, while crude oil alone stood at approximately 1.51 million bpd in July 2025.
This is as the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), through the Air Component of Operation Delta Safe (AC OPDS) at the 115 Special Operations Group, Port Harcourt, reinforced its role in protecting Nigeria’s energy infrastructure and reducing economic losses from oil theft and illegal refining.
According to a statement by Air Commodore EhimenEjodame, NAF’s Director of Public Relations and Information, the renewed push followed the directive of the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, for air components to step up operational tempo across all theatres.
The Commander, AC OPDS, Group Capt. Abdulafeez Opaleye, gave the figure of total average oil production in a periodic update on Friday.
“This figure reflects a steady month-on-month rise in 2025. The output surge is broadly attributed to enhanced security operations, including those led or supported by AC OPDS in the Niger Delta, which have reduced disruptions from sabotage and theft,” Opaleye said.
He explained that across multiple Niger Delta states, daily helicopter sorties have denied saboteurs access to pipelines, illegal refineries, and logistics hubs, actions that, according to industry data, are contributing to a measurable rebound in national oil output.
“The NAF’s presence above the mangrove, riverine, and coastal terrain is now a critical defence of Nigeria’s economic lifeline.
“Between May and August 2025, the group’s surveillance and attack platforms conducted sustained Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR), Armed Reconnaissance, and Pipeline Patrol missions over Ondo, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River states,” he added.
The commander said those operations uncovered and destroyed dozens of illegal refining facilities, neutralised camps supporting militants, destroyed cooking tanks and reservoirs, and exposed illicit oil theft networks.
“Each mission not only degraded criminal capacity, but also reinforced deterrence, making it riskier and less profitable for saboteurs to operate,” he noted.
In his remarks, the Chief of Training and Operations (CTOP), Air Vice Marshal Francis Edosa, said that mission metrics from May through July 2025 detail the depth of AC OPDS’s operations: 117 missions, 189 sorties, 192 flight hours; expending ammunition, consuming over 60,000 litres of Jet A-1 fuel; destroying 25 cooking tanks, 11 reservoirs, and three drums used in illegal refining processes.
Edosa said the actions had proven that kinetic and intelligence driven air operations can yield both security and economic dividends, reaffirming the Nigerian Air Force’s commitment to further stabilising the Niger Delta, safeguarding national oil revenue, and ensuring that the skies remain hostile to sabotage and safe for legitimate production.
