Fatal accidents in illegal oil depots occur time and again in Nigeria. More than 100 people died in an explosion in the Niger Delta over the weekend.
Members of the Task Force to Combat Illegal Bunkering of Crude Oil during the demolition of an illegal storage facility in Okrika, Rivers State, Nigeria. (Recorded on January 28, 2022)
(Reuters) An explosion at an illegal oil refinery depot in Nigeria’s Rivers state killed more than 100 people on Saturday, a local government official and the non-governmental organization Youths and Environmental Advocacy Center (YEAC) said on Saturday.
“The fire broke out at an illegal bunker facility,” said State Petroleum Resources Commissioner Goodluck Opiah. More than 100 people were burned beyond recognition. According to the Youth and Environmental Advocacy Center, the blast burned several vehicles waiting in line to buy illegal fuel.
The bunker facility was located in the Ohaji-Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State in the Abaezi Forest, which lies on the border between the two states of Rivers and Imo. Unemployment and poverty in the oil-producing Niger Delta have made illegal oil processing an attractive business with deadly consequences.
Oil pollution and repeated fatal accidents
Crude oil is tapped from a network of pipelines owned by major oil companies and refined into products in makeshift tanks. The dangerous process has resulted in many fatal accidents and polluted a region already scarred by oil spills in farmlands, streams and lagoons.
The move to the border location is in response to the Rivers state governor’s recent crackdown on illegal refineries. This is intended to reduce the increasing air pollution. “The Governor of Rivers State has recently made a push to shut down illegal processing in Rivers, forcing it to move to the outskirts and neighboring states. There have been several raids over the last month or two and some of the security officers involved have been arrested,” said Ledum Mitee, former chairman of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP).
An explosion and fire at another illegal refinery in Rivers state in October killed at least 25 people, including some children. In February, local authorities said they had launched a raid to stop the processing of stolen crude oil, but with little success.
Government officials estimate that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and exporter, loses an average of 200,000 barrels of oil a day — more than 10 percent of total production — to pipeline tapping or vandalism. This has forced oil companies to regularly declare force majeure on oil and gas exports.