Nigeria suffers 2m  oil barrels loss as floating vessel explodes

By Adewale Sanyolu

Nigeria’s crude oil export has recorded a two million barrels dip as a Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) Trinity Spirit belonging to Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited (SEPCOL) in Receivership has exploded in the Niger Delta region.

The Trinity Spirit FPSO 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.

The fire incident occurred k at the Ukpokiti terminal, around Excravos, Warri South-west, Delta State.

The asset is owned by SEPCOL  which in 2004 acquired all of 40 per cent of ConocoPhillips equity interest in OML 108.

The FPSO serves as the primary production facility of for OML 108 and is also a government approved terminal for lifting operations for all OML 108 production.

A statement by the  SEPCOL Chief Executive Officer(CEO), Ikemefuna Okafor,made available to Daily Sun disclosed that the cause of the explosion is currently being investigated with the the firm 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.

We appreciate 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 disclosed.