A floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) crude oil station, Trinity Spirit owned by Nigeria’s Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) exploded with 10 crew members on board, according to Minister of Environment, Sharon Ikeazor.
Trinity Spirit (FPSO) produces 22,000 barrels of crude oil per day but has a storage capacity of 2 million barrels. However, it was holding about 50,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude oil on the day of the incident, the sources familiar with the operation of the FPSO disclosed on Wednesday.
While the Minister and company that manages the facility have since declared zero casualties, the whereabout of the 10 people on board the facility is still unknown even though an investigation has begun to unravel their whereabout, the company stated. Mr. Ikusemuya Igbekele, the chairman of the host fishing community, claimed to have seen two dead bodies around the facility after the fire burnt out.
The two rescue boats sent out by SEPCOL during the outbreak came back empty, saying they could not find any person around the facility. “We drove round to see if we could see people but we did not see anybody and the fire was still blazing,” said Joe Sunday, an assistant boat driver in one of the rescue boats.
The fire outbreak on Trinity Spirit is now expected to further hurt Nigeria’s already weak oil production and revenue generation capacity. Presently, Nigeria’s OPEC+ crude oil production quota is capped at 1.71 million barrels per day while Nigeria’s crude oil production stood at around 1.43 million barrels per day in January 2022. With another 22,000 barrels per day of the nation’s total production, Nigeria is expected to produce even less crude oil in the coming months.
This decline in total production will drag on the nation’s foreign revenue generation and ability to service its almost 200 million population that depend on foreign imports for 90 percent of its consumption.
Over the years, Nigeria has struggled to up its oil production but weak infrastructures amid high cost of production have continued to impede Africa’s largest economy from expanding its oil sector, oil revenue and economic productivity in general.