Agip Pipeline Explodes, Kills Three, Injures Seven

Men of Nigerian Navy Special Boat Service on Board NN Okpabana, preparing to take part in the 2016 Obanganme/Sahara Express Exercise on the Nigerian Water, recently

A pipeline belonging to the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Olugboboro community in Olodiama clan, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, has exploded, killing three persons, and injuring about seven others.
The explosion, which occurred, Sunday, when some technical staff of an oil contracting firm simply known as ‘Marine’, were working to clamp a ruptured section of the Agip pipeline, took the spirited efforts of Agip’s fire-fighters and other emergency crew teams to be brought under control, Monday.
Three of the victims, including an underwater welder identified simply as Nelson Negibo, were burnt beyond recognition and their corpses recovered after the fire was put out on Monday.
Two of the other victims, were further identified as indigenes of Adama in Twon-Brass, Brass Local Government Area of the state, while most of the victims with various degrees of burns, according to community sources, were flown to various medical centres in Bayelsa and Rivers states.
Confirming the incident, the Bayelsa State Coordinator of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), Comrade Morris Alagoa,  described the incident as shocking and tragic.
According to Alagoa, “The news of another tragic incident in the oil industry, which claimed three lives and several persons sustained various degrees of injuries, came to the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) as a great shock.
“For ERA, it was reliably gathered that there was another pipeline fire/explosion along Agip pipeline within Olugboboro environment on Sunday, 27th March, 2016 while repairs or clamping was on-going.
“While industrial and other accidents are part of the realities of our existence; some are preventable. And, this is where, we in ERA, will not stop calling on the authorities and regulators of the oil industry to make safety and best practices the mantra of the industry; not just profit. We are calling for a well-constituted panel of enquiry made up of professional/stakeholders (including CSOs) to investigate this incident, and recommendations and report made public.
“It is worrisome because; it is another sad commentary of the unsafe working environment and loss of lives. This is moreso, considering the fact that it happened less than a year from the Azuzuama incident which claimed over 12 lives last July,” Alagoa said.
“All things being equal, ERA in our usual way, shall visit the site of incident and obtain first-hand testimonies before coming out with our formal report and related advocacy statements,” he added.
Also speaking, the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) through its Director-General, Dr. Peter Idabor, admitted that a staff of the agency escaped death in the incident.
Idabor said that the survivor had drawn the attention of the oil workers to the breach of safety procedure and left the scene shortly before the incident occurred.
“I received a report of the incident from our staff in Yenagoa office, and luckily, one of our officers on the team survived. Because of the unsafe conditions of the site, after inspection, my staff left the place, and he was not affected.