ABUJA, Feb 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A huge oil vessel with capacity for two million barrels of oil has exploded off the coast of Nigeria.
Dramatic footage shows fire engulfing the Trinity Spirit and thick plumes of smoke bellowing from the sinking vessel at Ukpokiti oil field close to the River Niger delta.
Attempts to contain the situation were being made with help from local communities and Chevron, which has a facility nearby.
The ship, a floating production, storage and offloading vessel, had a crew of ten on board. There have been no reports of any crew members being found.
Mystery surrounds the cause of the blast on the storage craft, which is owned by Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) – a firm in receivership.
It is not yet clear how much, if any, oil, has been spilled in the blaze.
Chief executive Ikemefuna Okafor said investigations were underway to establish the cause of the explosion, which happened in the early hours of Wednesday.
‘At this time there are no reported fatalities, but we can confirm that there were ten crew men on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritising investigations with respect to their safety and security,’ Okafor said.
Although Nigeria is Africa’s largest crude producer, production costs there are high due to frequent accidents and insecurity.
Militants have frequently attacked oil installations in the past and Nigerian pirates are active across the wider Gulf of Guinea region.
It is unclear how much oil was spilled after the explosion but commentators have warned that the country could be facing its second environmental disaster in three months.
In November, a well head started spewing 20,000 barrels of oil a day into the waterways of Nembe in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state.
The catastrophic leak was only stemmed weeks later with the Nigerian government declaring the fallout from the disaster as being ‘like Hiroshima’. — NNN-AGENCIES
