4 Expatriates, 18 Others Perish In Bonny Pipeline Fire

President Goodluck Jonathan (left) and President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, at the UN Headquarters in New York, last Wednesday.

Four expatriates and 18 others were confirmed dead yesterday
in a pipeline fire in one of the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC)
facilities, popularly called Bomu/Bonny manifold in Bonny area of Rivers State.

The Tide gathered that the crude oil inferno started at
about 2:45am in the early hours of yesterday in a bunkering vessels usually
used to load crude oil at night in the area.

After a visit to the area, The Tide confirmed that 22
persons died instantly including a
former councellor, while 21 persons sustained severe burns.

The 22 dead persons were said to have been hurriedly buried
while the 21 other injured victims were taken to undisclosed clinics in Bonny
and Andoni for treatment.

The Tide also gathered that, several persons were feared
missing, although it could not be confirmed whether they were inside the vessel
still on fire or taking refugee in the creeks.

Sources further told
The Tide that the fire incident started when a white man on the vessel
lit cigarette while loading crude oil into the vessel.The man was among those
missing in the inferno.

Speaking to The Tide, a community head in one of the
villages close to the area of the incident said the illegal bunkering business
in the area has  been on for more than a
year, and that the bunkering vessels were usually towed into the area night,
allegedly, with the help of some others, suspected to be SPDC vigilantes and
security agents placed to secure the pipelines.

The Tide could not reach the owner of the vessel involved in
the incident, one Mr Jerry from Bayelsa State, but when contacted, the Rivers
State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Ben Ogwuegbulam could not
immediately confirm the incident.

Efforts to contact the SPDC surveillance contractor, Chief
Samuel B Enene proved abortive as all his mobile lines were not going, but one
of the surveillance workers in Chief Enene’s surveillance team who spoke with
The Tide under condition of anonymity said the area involved in the illegal
bunkering inferno is not in Chief Enene’s area of surveillance.

He said the area of the incident was outside Andoni area,
saying that the pipelines contracted to them by SPDC to secure are those within
the Andoni area.

Meanwhile, the Shell Petroleum Development Company of
Nigeria (SPDC) operated Joint venture has confirmed the fire on its pipeline in
Rivers State.

In a statement yesterday, the company said it has “shut the
28-inch Bomu–Bonny Trunkline after discovering a fire on it early this morning
(30th September). A burning vessel, thought to be involved in the theft of crude
oil from the line, was sighted near the incident site, close to Okololunch
community in the Eastern Niger Delta. The line conveys crude oil to Bonny
Terminal.”

Some 150,000 barrels of oil per day is deferred, the
statement signed by Shell’s Corporate Media Relations Manager, Tony
Okonedo,said.

“This incident clearly demonstrates the scale of the oil
theft problem which, alongside the hundreds of illegal refineries in the Niger
Delta, is having such a profound effect on the people, communities and the environment,”
Okonedo quoted Shell’s Vice President for Health, Safety, Environment &
Corporate Affairs, Sub-Saharan Africa, Tony Attah, as saying.

Enoch Epelle