ABUJA, Nigeria
At least 100 people may have died in an explosion at an illegal oil refinery in southeast Nigeria, a local oil official said Sunday as the search intensified for bodies at the site and for two people suspected of being involved in the blast.
Nigerian President Muhammadu
Buhari, in a statement, called the explosion a “catastrophe and a national
disaster.”
The explosion Friday night at
the facility in Ohaji-Egbema local government area in Imo state was triggered
by a fire at two fuel storage areas where more than 100 people worked, state
officials told The Associated Press.
Dozens of workers were caught
up in the explosion while many others attempted to escape the blaze by running
into wooded areas.
Those who died in the disaster
are estimated to be within “the range of 100,” said Goodluck Opiah, the Imo
commissioner for petroleum resources. “A lot of them ran into the bush with the
burns and they died there.”
Buhari has directed the
nation’s security forces “to intensify the clampdown” on such facilities being
operated illegally in many parts of southern Nigeria, a spokesperson said in a
statement.
Although Nigeria is Africa’s
largest producer of crude oil, for many years its oil production capacity has
been limited by a chronic challenge of oil storage and the operation of illegal
refineries.
Nigeria lost at least $3
billion worth of crude oil to theft between January 2021 and February 2022,
with shady business operators often avoiding regulators by setting up
refineries in remote areas such as the one that exploded in Imo, the Nigerian
Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said in March.
“There are no arrests yet but
the two culprits are on the run with the police now looking for them,” said
Declan Emelumba, the Imo State commissioner for information. Officials did not
reveal the identities of the suspects.
A mass burial is being planned
for those killed in the explosion, many of who “were burnt beyond recognition,”
said Emelumba. Environmental officials have started to fumigate the area.
Such disasters are a regular occurrence in Africa’s most populous country, where poverty and unemployment – at 33% according to the latest government estimates – have forced millions of young people into criminal activities.
Operating illegal refineries
is not as popular in Imo state as it is in the oil-rich Niger Delta region,
where militants have gained notoriety for blowing up oil pipelines and
kidnapping workers from petroleum companies.
As many as 30 illegal oil
refineries were busted in the Niger Delta region in just two weeks, Nigeria’s
Defense Department said earlier this month when it announced a task force to
curb crude oil theft.
In the aftermath of the
explosion in Imo state, the Nigerian ministry of petroleum told The AP there is
“a renewed action” to tackle illegal activities in the oil sector.
The government and the
military are stepping up actions “to minimize the criminalities along the oil
production lines,” said Horatius Egua, a senior official at the petroleum
ministry.
But many of the culprits are
not deterred including in Imo state, one of the few places producing oil in
Nigeria’s southeast. The problem of illegal refineries “has never been this
bad” and remains “difficult to end,” said Opiah, the Imo petroleum
commissioner.
“It is like asking why
kidnapping or armed robbery has not stopped,” he said. “Even with this
incident, not many people will be deterred. I am sure more illegal refineries
will be cropping up in other places.” - AP
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