Sixteen people were killed after a fire broke out Oct. 12 on an oil pipeline in southeast Nigeria, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) told Reuters.
The state oil company said the fire occurred along the Osisioma axis near the Aba depot and emergency services had now been deployed to the scene.
The company added that production would be affected as they had to stop pumping oil on the line, although “not adversely” as they also transport crude by road.
“The incident might have been caused by suspected oil thieves who had hacked into the line to intercept the flow of petrol from Port Harcourt to Aba,” NNPC said in an earlier statement.
Many oil spills in the southern oil production heartland of Africa’s biggest crude producer are caused by theft and pipeline sabotage. The methods used to steal the oil often result in accidents that cause fires.
Recommended Reading
Defeating the ‘Four Horsemen’ of Flow Assurance
2024-04-18 - Service companies combine processes and techniques to mitigate the impact of paraffin, asphaltenes, hydrates and scale on production—and keep the cash flowing.
Tech Trends: AI Increasing Data Center Demand for Energy
2024-04-16 - In this month’s Tech Trends, new technologies equipped with artificial intelligence take the forefront, as they assist with safety and seismic fault detection. Also, independent contractor Stena Drilling begins upgrades for their Evolution drillship.
AVEVA: Immersive Tech, Augmented Reality and What’s New in the Cloud
2024-04-15 - Rob McGreevy, AVEVA’s chief product officer, talks about technology advancements that give employees on the job training without any of the risks.
Lift-off: How AI is Boosting Field and Employee Productivity
2024-04-12 - From data extraction to well optimization, the oil and gas industry embraces AI.
AI Poised to Break Out of its Oilfield Niche
2024-04-11 - At the AI in Oil & Gas Conference in Houston, experts talked up the benefits artificial intelligence can provide to the downstream, midstream and upstream sectors, while assuring the audience humans will still run the show.