Safety

Nigerian FPSO Explodes With 10 Aboard

The Trinity Spirit, capable of storing up to 2 million bbl, sank off the Nigerian coast on 3 February.

TrinitySpirit.jpg
The Trinity Spirit burns off the coast of Nigeria following an explosion before it sank.
Source: Image taken from Twitter video

A floating production, storage, and offloading (FPSO) vessel moored off the coast of Nigeria exploded and sank on 3 February with 10 people onboard. The Trinity Spirit was owned by Nigeria’s Shebah Exploration and Production Company and anchored in the Ukpokiti oil field offshore Nigeria’s Delta State.

“At this time, there are no reported fatalities,” said Ikemefuna Okafor, Shebah’s chief executive, in a statement, “but we can confirm that there were 10 crewmen on board the vessel prior to the incident and we are prioritizing investigations with respect to their safety and security.”

Okafor added that investigations were under way to determine the cause of the explosion and that Chevron, which has a facility nearby, is helping with response operations.

“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,” Okafor said.

The Trinity Spirit has operated in the Ukpokiti field since 1997. It is capable of producing liquids at 22,000 B/D, although Rystad Energy reported that it probably has not produced oil since 2019 and is likely used solely for storage.

The Trinity Spirt could hold up to 2 million bbl of oil but probably was not full when it exploded, Rystad reported.

Accident investigators are likely to consider the age of the vessel, which was at the end of its expected life, when determining the cause of the explosion. The Trinity Spirit was originally built in 1976, and the latest upgrade took place in 1997, according to Rystad.

“The primary concern is the potential environmental implications of the situation, which will be hard to quantify until after the dust settles and the aftermath is assessed,” Rystad said in a press release.

The Trinity Spirit explosion comes 3 months after a nonproducing wellhead in Nigeria’s Bayelsa state blew, releasing more than 20,000 BOPD into the environment, killing wildlife and fouling mangroves and waterways. Sharon Ikeazor, Nigeria’s minister of state environment, has called that accident “like a Hiroshima site.”