Following the unfortunate incident of the explosion of oil storage and production vessel, FPSO Trinity Spirit, stakeholders in the Oil and Gas industry have urged the regulatory authority to ensure that all oil-producing and storage facilities are in perfect condition at all times otherwise they should be decommissioned as the law requires.
Asset integrity they said is necessary to avoid losses of crude oil and gas, and prevent accidents such as this one, they said.
According to Godswell Ihetu, former managing director of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas NLNG limited while reacting to the incident said, the regulator has the responsibility to prevent these incidents.
Other stakeholders advocated for a thorough investigation of the incident so as to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.
Meanwhile, the death tolls resulting from the incident have increased to three people with four crew are still missing, the operating company said on Monday.
The vessel had 10 crew on board when it exploded on Wednesday, Nigeria’s Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) said, three people have been found dead, while another three people had been found alive.
“Our priority remains focused towards establishing the whereabouts, safety, and security of the four crew members still missing,” the company said.
The Trinity Spirit floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel was not producing oil at the time of the blast, after the consortium running the oilfield, including SEPCOL, lost its production licence in 2019.
Two oil industry sources and an environmental group said the vessel was old and badly maintained prior to the explosion. One source said major trading firms had stopped using it to store crude.
The company has not responded to requests for comment on the allegations.
Nigeria’s environment minister said on Saturday the vessel had been storing about 50,000-60,000 barrels of crude, well below its capacity of 2 million barrels.
The government’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency was carrying out a second aerial survey on Monday
