Oil production ship explodes off Nigeria,10 dead

Feb 04, 2022 News

---

– Guyana still to get full coverage insurance from Exxon

An oil production and storage ship exploded in southern Delta state and 10 crewmembers are feared dead, Nigerian authorities said.
An official of the Sheba Oil Exploration and Production Company confirmed the incident in a statement Thursday. Ikemefuna Okafor said the offshore production facility known as Trinity Spirit erupted in flames in Ukpokiti, on the coast of Nigeria’s southern Delta state.

He said the fire was believed to have been caused by an explosion and that the incident was being investigated. Ikemefuna said the initial responders to the incident included local fishermen and Clean Nigeria Associates, a team operating at a nearby facility. The extent of damage is still unknown. The ship is able to store up to two million barrels of oil and the explosion raises serious environmental concerns. Three months ago an oil spill in nearby Bayelsa state spewed for one month, causing severe damage to land and water bodies before it was contained.
Ibiosiya Sukubo is a leader of one of the communities in the Niger Delta that was recently affected. “The ecological and aquatic devastation caused by oil and gas exploitation and exploration has been quite colossal and astronomical,” Sukubo said. “The movement of heavy marine vessels creating a host of turbidity without proper compensation, alleviation, remediation, is an appalling circumstance we find ourselves in, the Niger Delta.” Nigeria is trying to maximize its petroleum output, and authorities have intensified a crackdown on illegal tapping of pipelines. Petroleum officials say the country loses some 150,000 barrels of oil a day to such theft.
The Nigeria incident comes at a time when Guyana is still to secure full coverage insurance from oil operators here despite numerous calls for such. Currently, the Liza Destiny vessel is operating at the Liza Phase One Project in the absence of full coverage insurance. Next month, Guyana will be starting up its second oil ship called the Liza Unity. It will be producing 220,000 barrels of oil from the Liza Phase Two Project. Despite numerous calls from local and regional actors, neither the PPP/C Government nor ExxonMobil have made any effort to give Guyana full coverage insurance to protect its environs and citizens from the irreversible and devastating effects of a potential oil spill.
In fact, Guyana’s regulator, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), quietly made modifications to the Liza Phase Two Project’s Environmental Permit which preserved a provision allowing only ExxonMobil’s limited liability company, Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited (EEPGL), to cover costs for any spill or pollution that occurs. This also obtains in the permit for the Payara Project which comes on stream next year.
Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, who has claimed on numerous occasions to have the citizen’s interest at heart, has also failed to demand full coverage insurance from ExxonMobil which the country is entitled to. Instead, he has said the administration is looking to get Exxon to “acknowledge” that it has a commitment to protect the environment. Towards this end, he said negotiations are in play for a possible US$2B coverage for Exxon’s fourth project called Yellowtail.
Earlier this week the Kaieteur News reported that a judge in Peru Friday last, barred four executives from Spanish oil company, Repsol, from leaving the country amid the devastating oil spill which saw more than 6,000 barrels of crude contaminating the shores of Peru.

Kaieteur News reported that the oil spill occurred on January 15, 2022, at one of the La Pampilla refineries off the coast of Ventanilla in the region of Lima, Peru. It was reported that the oil spill was caused by shock waves from an undersea volcanic eruption near Tonga in the South Pacific Ocean. At the time of the undersea eruption, Suezmax tanker, Mare Doricum, was unloading a shipment of Brazilian crude oil at one of La Pampilla refinery’s offshore mooring buoys, and as such a quantity of the cargo was released.
As a result of the oil spill, several Peruvian officials had called for the Spanish oil giant to compensate for what they described as an ‘ecological disaster’ that has occurred in Lima in recent times. However, according to Peruvian media reports, Repsol officials have denied the liability for the spill and also called it an accident. According to Peruvian media, a Specialized Prosecutor for Environmental Matters for Lima, Noroeste, approached the Peruvian court, seeking an order to prevent four Repsol executives from leaving the country. It was reported that the prosecutor was considering a criminal case against the company’s representatives and as such he approached the district court to issue an order preventing the Repsol executives from leaving the country – in order to ensure that they will be available for any possible criminal proceedings.
Based on the prosecutor’s submission to the court, Judge Romualdo Aguedo on Friday granted the order to prevent the four executives from leaving the country. Peruvian media reported that Judge Aguedo imposed an 18-months ban on the grounds of the potential risk that the officials might leave Peru.

Those that have been barred are: refinery manager, Jaime Fernández-Cuesta Luca de Tena; terminal manager, Renzo Alejandro Tejada Mackenzie; environmental manager, Gisela Cecilia Posadas Jhong; and production manager, José Gregorio Reyes Ruiz. It was reported that the lawyers for the Repsol executives did not appeal the decision and said that they will collaborate with the investigation. Additionally, Peru’s Agency for Environmental Assessment and Enforcement (OEFA) alleges that Repsol has not complied with orders related to the cleanup effort for these areas, and the agency has issued an initial fine of $4.8 million.

---

---