Ten men feared dead after oil vessel explodes in Nigeria

An oil production vessel belonging to Nigeria’s Shebah Exploration & Production Company has exploded, Sepcol's chief executive Ikemefuna Okafor said on Thursday.

Reports of 10 people killed in the incident, involving FPSO Trinity Spirit, have yet to be confirmed.

“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,” Reuters quoted Mr Okafor as saying.

The incident may prove to be Nigeria's second major environmental setback in three months. In November, a well operated by independent producer Aiteo Eastern E&P Co. blew, spewing oil and gas into the air and surrounding river for five weeks before it was capped.

The Trinity Spirit, with a capacity of 22,000 barrels of oil per day, is a floating production, storage and offloading vessel in Warri south-west, in Delta State. While it is able to store about 2 million barrels of oil, it is not yet clear how much crude was being held on the Trinity Spirit.

Sepcol is in receivership, a form of bankruptcy protection.

Data published by Nigeria’s state-owned energy company show no production from Sepcol's permit in 2020 or 2021, while the country’s oil regulator announced in mid-2019 it was revoking the license.

Investigations are under way to establish the cause of the explosion, which occurred in the early hours of Wednesday, Mr Okafor said.

The vessel was still on fire on Thursday morning, Idris Musa, director general of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, told Bloomberg.

“From the environment angle, we are putting in efforts to prevent damage beyond the current burning of the contents” of the ship, he said.

Chevron, which has a plant nearby, people living locally are supporting efforts to contain the blaze.