Updated: FPSO goes boom, burns down at Escravos

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Nigeria may relapse into petroleum production downturn once more with today’s incident in which a floating production, storage and offtake (FPSO) vessel suffered a blowout and sank into shallow water, offshore Western Niger Delta.

The 50 year old offshore oil and gas production vessel, Trinity Spirit FPSO, is involved in the incident and the Meren concession in which it was deployed is operated by Chevron Nigeria Limited.

It is not clear whether the FPSO was in the service of Chevron as the tracking app used to identify the vessel linked it to Shebah Exploration and Production Company Limited (SEPCOL).

Witnesses said the blowout was announced by a huge explosion which boomed off just after midnight and set the vessel ablaze. Fears of casualty are high following the time of the incident and lack of visible response to the incident as the day worn out.   

Stories emerging from the Escravos base of Chevron over the incident, our reports gathered, have unsettled the local people who fear that some of the operations personnel on the production vessel at the time of the incident might be indigenous.

Casualty figures are yet to be confirmed as corporate spokesmen for Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC), Mr Paul Osu, declined comments on the incident.

Group spokesman of Chevron in Nigeria, Mr Esimaje Brikkin, could not be reached at the time of the incident but a source close to the company confirmed the incident but said the vessel was neither operated by Chevron nor in the service of the company.

He said the FPSO belonged to a third party whose facilitites, he said, had laid dormant for quite a while before the incident happened.

“That vessel had been there at the Meren area all the while doing barely nothning. I not sure who operates it but I can assure you it was not operated by Chevron neither was it working for Chevron,” our source stated.

Other officials of Chevron including the company’s field public affairs representatives in the Escravos area went silent on the incident.

Calls to SEPCOL officials did not connect.

Also, the Group General Manager in charge of Group Public Affairs Division of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr Garbadeen Muhammed, also declined phone calls from The Oracle Today.

Chevron operates the Meren field in a joint venture with NNPC and under the supervision of NURC. Other officials in the institutions also claimed not to be aware of the incident.

Field witnesses and amateur photographs from workers in nearby facilities in the area showed a floating maritime structure in a ball of flames.

Our library files show that Chevron completed offshore hook-up and commissioning activities on the operated Meren Gas Gathering and Compression Platform from where it delivers 120 million cubic feet of natural gas (MMcf/d) and significant volumes of hydrocarbon liquids per day.

First gas from the facility was recorded on June 28, 2015.

Details of the incident are still being explored.