By Emmanuel Nduka
A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel named ‘Trinity Spirit’ belonging to Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited (SEPCOL) located in the Escravos area of Delta State exploded on Wednesday morning.
The vessel has a capacity to process up to 22,000 barrels of oil per day, inject up to 40,000 barrels of water per day and store 2 million barrels of oil.
SEPCOL (now in receivership) is owned by a combination of Nigerian and overseas corporate entities, which include: Abbeycourt Trading Company Limited (ATCO), Abbeycourt Petroleum Company Limited and Allenne Limited.
The FPSO serves as the primary production facility for OML 108 and is also a government-approved terminal for lifting operations for all OML 108 production.
The explosion caused fire and panic in the Escravos area of Warri South-West Local Government Area of the State.
An eyewitness account has it that an intense fire was sighted offshore, thus causing fear in the area.
Confirming the incident, Shebah Exploration and Production Company Ltd Chief Executive Officer, Ikemefuna Okafor, issued a release titled: “Fire Incident On The Trinity Spirit FPSO.”
The statement which notes that the incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday, added that investigations were going on to ascertain the actual cause of the explosion.
It further confirmed that there were 10 crew members, but that everything was being done to ensure their safety and security.
“The management of Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) in receivership, hereby announces the unfortunate incident of a fire that engulfed our offshore facility, the FPSO Trinity Spirit located at the Ukpokiti Terminal, following an explosion during the early hours of Wednesday, 2nd of February 2022.
“The cause of the explosion is currently being investigated and we are working with necessary parties to contain the situation.
“At this time there are no reported fatalities, but we can confirm that there were 10 crew men on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritising investigations with respect to their safety and security, “ the company said.
SEPCOL further appreciated the assistance provided by the Clean Nigeria Associates (CNA), the Chevron team operating in the nearby Escravos facility and its community stakeholders as well as fishermen, who it said had been of tremendous assistance since the incident happened.
“We have duly notified all relevant authorities and we appeal to the members of the public to stay away from the area while our crisis management team continues to monitor the situation and update all stakeholders with new information as the investigation evolves,” it stated.
The Niger Delta has suffered from environmental pollution caused by oil production for decades. Oil spills and gas flaring have destroyed large swathes of the region’s ecosystem and caused health issues in local populations.
According to one of the workers who wouldn’t want his name in print, “The explosion is a threat to Nigeria’s ecosystem.
“We have to look at it from the point of whether it is an active rig or not. Its content matters. Irrespective of whether it’s an active rig or not, the fact that it has exploded is a threat to fishing in Nigeria’s riverine communities.
“That it exploded, its content is already spilt in the waters around communities close to where it exploded, and that means no fishing for these communities.
“How long are we going to continue with this trend? This is a loss to our riverine communities. That means they cannot fish due to this explosion.”
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