LAGOS: Three crew members on board a Nigerian oil vessel that exploded and sank last week have been found alive while seven were still missing, the ship operator said.
The Nigerian FPSO Trinity Spirit — a floating production, storage and offloading vessel — caught fire following an explosion on Wednesday, but the blaze was extinguished a day later.
The vessel was located at the Ukpokiti Terminal, along the coast of the oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Ten crew members were on board the vessel at the time of the accident.
Ikemefuna Okafor, the executive officer of Shebah Exploration & Production Company Ltd. (SEPCOL), the vessel owner, said late Sunday “three crew members have been found alive in the community.”
He said the company would ensure they receive the appropriate medical attention.
However, Okafor said that “one dead body was discovered in the vicinity” of the vessel, but it was not immediately clear if it was a crew member.
“The identity of the dead body is yet to be ascertained,” he said, adding that efforts were ongoing to find the remaining crew members.
“Focus of our joint efforts is to prioritize investigations toward establishing the whereabouts, safety, and security of the seven crew members still missing, clean up and limit damage to the environment, and establish the cause of the explosion.”
The vessel had a processing capacity of 22,000 barrels per day and a storage capacity of two million barrels, according to the company’s website.
Environmental campaigners expressed fears of spills, but Idris Musa of the country’s spill detection agency NOSDRA, told AFP on Sunday “no spill incident yet other than emulsified oil in small quantity.”
Nevertheless, he said the agency was “watching more closely.”
Despite being Africa’s largest crude producer, accidents are frequent in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, although they usually occur on land.
Three alive, seven missing after Nigeria oil vessel fire
https://arab.news/gvufq
Three alive, seven missing after Nigeria oil vessel fire
- Ten crew members were on board the vessel at the time of the accident
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
