An overnight explosion at an illegal oil refining depot on the border of Nigeria’s Rivers and Imo states has killed more than 100 people.
The site was in the Ohaji-Egbema local government area of Imo state in the Abaezi forest that straddles the border of the two states.
The state commissioner for petroleum resources, Goodluck Opiah, said “The fire outbreak occurred at an illegal bunkering site and it affected over 100 people who were burnt beyond recognition.”
Former president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop), Ledum Mitee while speaking on the accident said “the Rivers state governor has made a push recently to stamp out illegal refining in Rivers so it has to move to the fringes and neighboring states. In the last month or two, there were several raids, and some security agents involved were tackled.”
Operations of illegal refineries are common in the oil-rich Niger Delta region. In January, troops of Operation Delta Safe discovered and immobilized a total of 39 illegal refining sites and a total of 637,500 liters of illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil; and 950,000 liters of Stolen Crude oil were recovered in the course of the operations.
Although Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the world, the West African country does not refine crude oil locally. State-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has four refineries, two in Port Harcourt (PHRC), and one each in Kaduna (KRPC) and Warri (WRPC) but none has worked to capacity for years despite several investments to succinate the refineries.