By Emeka Nze
Chevron Nigeria Limited is yet to put out the fire currently raging in one of its oil wells at Ojumole Well No. 1 located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 49 in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State, 36 days after. Specifically, the fire which was first noticed on Thursday, April 18, 2019, is still raging at the time of this report.
This is reminiscent of the 2012 fire explosion in one of the company’s rigs in Bayelsa State, which burned for over 46 days, killing at least two workers and destroying a large portion of the eco-system. During this period, Chevron and its rescue team from Houston, USA were unable to put out the fire. The fire eventually stopped burning on its own after rock fragments within the underground natural gas well blocked the source of leak.
The current fire at Ojumole Well No. 1, appears beyond Chevron’s capacity to put out, as its contact with the Department of Petroleum Resources, National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency and other regulatory and security authorities, have not yielded any result.
It was not clear whether Chevron will fly in their in-house experts from Houston, USA, but efforts by MediaIssues to reach the General Manager, Policy Government and Public Affairs, CNL, Mr Esimaje Brikinn, proved futile.
However, in an earlier release to the press, Brikinn had said “Chevron is currently working with emergency response contractors to safely put out the fire as quickly as possible”, but there was no indication whether foreign experts will be involved.
Though Chevron had said no community was impacted by the fire incident, over 10 communities have said the fire explosion have affected their fishing and farming activities, and have therefore called on Chevron to pay them the sum of about $2.5bn as compensation.
Chevron has attributed the fire incident to sabotage.