Feb. 6, 2022

About three weeks ago, we published an article about the soot crisis in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, Nigeria, and how the activities of multinational oil companies have been polluting communities in the Niger Delta region.

Well, this week, there was an explosion involving an aging FPSO belonging to a marginal field operator Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd. (Sepcol) at Ukpokiti Oil Field in the early hours of Wednesday, 2nd of February 2022.

Ten people were working aboard the vessel at the time of the incident and a combined team of rescuers from other multinational oil companies are still searching for the missing crewmen.

Meanwhile, an undisclosed source said that the FPSO trinity spirit was allegedly rejected for registration by Safety Department in 2017.

According to the source, the vessel was out of class as then though it had a Liberian Registry Certificate and was poorly maintained majorly because those who operate FPSO do not keep to safety regulations.

“It was an accident waiting to happen since 2017. It should not even have been allowed to stay or operate in Nigerian waters.” The source disclosed.

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in line with its statutory regulatory oversight of upstream petroleum operations in the Nigerian oil and gas industry said it has commenced investigations into the incident at the Ukpokiti Oil Field along with relevant stakeholders and will provide updates appropriately.

Now, here’s the shocking part…

According to Sepcol’s website, the Trinity Spirit was the primary production facility for OML 108 which covers 750 square km (290 square miles) of water off the Niger Delta, ranging from a depth of 30 meters to 213 meters.

The company indicated that the Trinity Spirit could process up to 22,000 barrels per day as well as inject up to 40,000 barrels with water per day. Its storage capacity was 2 million barrels of oil, although it is unknown how much crude it had stored at the time of the blast.

This is especially dangerous because we know how these things go. If there were barrels of oil aboard the vessel at the time of the explosion, it means the surrounding area risks pollution.

Recall BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig was pumping tens of thousands of barrels a day when it exploded in 2010 and had already flowed into the Gulf of Mexico causing an environmental disaster by the time it was plugged.

Ensuring accountability

According to the Nigerian oil ministry, the Ukpokiti Oil Field was not in production in 2020 and 2021, and this is linked to some reports that the Nigerian oil ministry revoked the company’s production license due to the financial trouble it was facing at the time.

What went wrong? Why was a vessel that was decommissioned years ago active?

This disaster further exposes the ineptitude of the maritime administrators in the country. The National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) must investigate this incident and bring everyone involved to book.

Courtesy: Cimateaction.africa