An Ikemefuna Okafor, chief executive of Nigeria’s Shebah Exploration & Production Company, said an explosion rocked the oil production vessel with 10 crew members on board on Thursday.
Ten people have been reported dead in the incident that involved the FPSO Trinity Spirit, but their deaths have not been confirmed.
“At this time there are no reported fatalities, but we can confirm that there were 10 crewmen on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritising investigations with respect to their safety and security,” Okafor said.
This is the second major environmental setback for Nigeria in three months. An oil and gas well blew in November, spewing oil and gas for over five weeks before being capped.
FPSO Trinity Spirit, with a production capacity of 22,000 barrels per day, is a floating production, storage and offloading plant in Warri south-west, Niger Delta. Although it can hold about 2 million barrels of oil, it is unclear how much crude was stored on the Trinity Spirit.
Sepcol is under receivership, a form of bankruptcy protection.
Nigeria’s state-owned energy company reported no production from Sepcol’s permit in 2020 or 2021, while the country’s oil regulator revoked the permit in mid-2019.
Mr Okafor said investigations were underway to determine the cause of the explosion that occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.
Idris Musa, director-general of the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, said that the vessel was still on fire Thursday morning.
Chevron, which has a nearby plant, and local residents are helping to contain the fire.