Fire Guts Five Oil Wells In Ondo

Five oil wells are currently on fire in Ondo, one of the oil-rich states in Nigeria, TheCable is reporting.

According to the newspaper, a huge fire broke out in Ajegunle Ikorigho community on Thursday and affected parts of Ojumole which is located in Ikorigho land.

The oil wells affected in the incident are said to be Isan-West field, Parable field, Malu field, Ororo and Opokaba.

The fire also spread to Otumara, Ikorigho, Ajegunle-Ikorigho, Zion Ikorigho, Iluayo, Kendo Ayeren and Ehinmoghan-Ikorigho communities.

A source said the oil wells belong to Chevron Nigeria Limited but the newspaper says it couldn’t independently verify the information.

The cause of the fire had not been ascertained as of press time as Femi Joseph, spokesman of the Ondo state police command, said he had not been briefed about the development.

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BIGPEN ONLINE reports that a similar fire outbreak was last week reported by the  management of Aiteo Eastern Exploration and Production Company prompting the company to placed a force majure on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL).

Mr Ndiana Matthew, Head, Corporate Communications of the company who stated this in a statement in Lagos had explained that the action followed information of a fire outbreak by a surveillance team composed of the Joint Task Force (JTF) and DSS around NCTL RoW near Awoba this Sunday.

“We are constrained to shut in injection as well as other related operations into the NCTL. In accordance with standard procedure, we requested the other injectors to do same. The NCTL has, hitherto, enjoyed smooth operations preceding this incident”, he said.