Port Harcourt – A floating oil vessel with 10 crew members on board has caught fire following an explosion in southern Nigeria’s Delta region, its operator said on Thursday.
The Shebah Exploration & Production Company said in a statement that “a fire engulfed our offshore facility… following an explosion during the early hours of Wednesday.”
Chief executive Ikemefuna Okafor said that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the accident and that the company was working to “contain the situation”.
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“At this time, there are no reported fatalities, but we can confirm that there were 10 crewmen onboard the vessel prior to the incident,” Okafor said.
The facility, located at the Ukpokiti Terminal, has processing capacity of 22,000 barrels per day and storage capacity of two million barrels.
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.
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pexels
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