UPDATE: 12 oil workers burnt to death, 3 injured in inferno as Bayelsa pipeline explodes
By Our Reporter
No less than 12 people were been burnt to death in a pipeline explosion in Bayelsa state of Nigeria’s Niger Delta.
The victims of the Agip pipeline blast were on a visit to the site of an oil spill along the Tebidaba-Azuzuama trunk line when the accident occurred, reports say.
“The cause of an explosion which occurred July 9, late in the afternoon, at the site of the repair works of the Tebidaba-Clough Creek line, an oil pipeline in Nigeria’s onshore Niger Delta, previously damaged by acts of sabotage, was under investigation,” Mr Filipo Cotalini, spokesman for a related company said on Friday.
“The explosion resulted in the death of 12 members of the maintenance team of a local company of services, with three others also injured,” he said.
“The cause of the incident is still under investigation by both Eni and the local authorities. The company expresses its deepest condolences to the families of those involved in this tragic accident.”
Oil spills is not new to Nigeria’s Niger Delta, where Bayelsa state is located.
Half of all spills occur due to pipeline and tanker accidents, the latter now a worrying trend in other parts of the country.
Other causes include sabotage and oil production operations, with one per cent of the spills being accounted for by inadequate or non-functional production equipment.
Environmental degradation and deadly explosions are only two of the heavy costs of these accidents.
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