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Fire Guts Warri Refinery, Oil Vessels Torched |
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Thursday, 05 July 2007 |
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ThisDay Newspapers
A massive explosion, caused by crude spillage from one of the tanks at the Warri Refinery yesterday resulted in an inferno that gutted part of the ailing refinery yesterday.
Although no life was lost, vessels on the Ubeki Creek, including badges and boats and other valuables, were said to have been torched as the ravaging fire spread over to the Warri River , where the oil vessels were berthing.
THISDAY checks revealed that the spillage of crude from the tank which spread towards the river resulted in the massive explosions which reportedly razed some property belonging to the communities.
Rescue operations were said to have come late thereby making the fire to spead far. As at press time yesterday, efforts were still in progress to put out the fire. Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has commenced a full scale investigation to ascertain the cause of the inferno.
Spokesman of the corporation, Dr. Levi Ajuonuma, who confirmed this in a telephone interview with THISDAY last night, explained that the cause of the fire can only be known after the investigation which he said, has commenced immediately.
Ajuonuma who would not give details, however said, the entire refinery was not touched.
The Warri Refinery, with production capacity of 125 barrel per day (bpd) of crude and the 110 bpd Kaduna Refinery had been shut down since February last year after militants from the Niger Delta region blew up their feeder pipeline at Escravos.
The two refineries in Kaduna and Warri prior to the problem, processed 28 and 25 per cent respectively of Nigeria 's total crude oil refined locally.
Efforts to put the refineries in operation were truncated by the youths in the area that prevented engineers from carrying out repairs on the facilities.
The damaged pipeline transports crude to both the Warri and Kaduna refineries, forcing the two refineries to stop operations in the last one year.
The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engr. Funsho Kupolokun had disclosed that the closure of the two refineries which were producing some 18 million litres of petrol daily, was one of the reasons for the last December fuel crisis in the country. |
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