An offshore production rig- FPSO Trinity Spirit located at the Ukpokiti Terminal has encountered an unprecedented explosion that almost engulfed the entire production facilities. The Management of Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) in RECEIVERSHIP has confirmed the unfortunate explosion which occurred at the early hours of Wednesday, 2nd of February 2022

According to the statement, which was signed by its Chief Executive Officer, Ikemefuna Okafor “The Management of Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd (SEPCOL) in RECEIVERSHIP hereby announce the unfortunate incident of a fire that engulfed our offshore facility, the FPSO Trinity Spirit located at the Ukpokiti Teminal, following an explosion during the early hours of Wednesday, 2nd of February 2022.

“The cause of the explosion is currently being investigated and we are working with necessary parties to contain the situation.

“At this time there are no reported fatalities, but we can confirm that there were ten crew men on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritising investigations with respect to their safety and security.

“We appreciate the assistance provided us by the Clean Nigeria Associates, the Chevron team operating in the nearby Escravos facility and our community stakeholders as well as fishermen, who have been of tremendous assistance since the incident happened.

“We have duly notified all relevant authorities and we appeal to the members of the public to stay away from the area while our Crisis Management Team continue to monitor the situation and update all stakeholders with new information as the investigation evolves.”

Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Trinity vessel which has the capacity to process up to 22,000 barrels of oil per day, and stores about two million barrels of oil before the deadly incident was producing crude at Ukpokiti Terminal, around Excravos, Warri South-west, Delta State and was built in 1976.

OML 108 covers an area of 750sqkm in water depth of 88ft (30m) in the western edge of the Niger Delta in shallow water offshore Nigeria, six miles southwest of Chevron’s Meren field but reaches water depth of 700ft (213m) on the southern portion of OML 108.

The block is composed of oil-producing Ukpokiti field, Kunza discovery and deeper pool prospects in the southern portion of the block. The Ukpokiti field comprising of 5 (five) oil wells and 1 injector wells.

Express Petroleum and Gas Company in December 1990 was awarded OML 108 offshore Nigeria (formerly OPL 74). Express assigned 40% interest to Conoco Energy Nigeria Limited as Technical advisor.Conoco later divested its 40% stake in the block in 2004 and transferred it to Shebah Exploration & Production Company Limited same year. Two exploration wells (Kunza-1 and Kunza-2) drilled in the Kunza discovery intersected commercial volumes of gas and condensate and will form the basis for coming appraisal, development and exploration effort.