Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited

By Chika Amanze-Nwachuku

Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited, the operator of NPDC/Seplat Joint Venture in Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 4, 38 and 41, has confirmed that a member of staff of a third party contractor was killed, while 10 others were injured during a fire incident at its Ovhor Remote manifold site.

The company stated in release Tuesday that the remote Ovhor manifold site was shutdown about two weeks ago after the detection of a leaking valve on a section of the Trans Forcados Trunckline managed by Shell Petroleum Development Company.

According to the statement, the company was taking advantage of the shutdown period to carry out scheduled maintenance at the site, while waiting for Shell to resolve the leakage problem, explaining that the fire erupted during the scheduled maintenance work at the facility, killing the staff of a third party contractor working on site at the time and injuring 10 others.

“The company was taking advantage of the shutdown period to carry out scheduled maintenance at the site, while waiting for Shell to resolve the leakage problem.

Unfortunately, a fire incident occurred during the scheduled maintenance work at the facility. Immediately, SEPLAT’s robust Integrated Incident Response Plan was activated.

Even though our robust Integrated Incident Response Plan was fully activated with the workers immediately evacuated from the site, a fatality was recorded while ten others were injured. The deceased was a member of staff of a third party contractor working on site at the time”, the company stated in the statement.