Pipeline blast kills 12 in Delta region
An oil pipeline in Nigeria’s Delta region has exploded while under maintenance work by an Italian oil firm, leaving at least 12 people dead, an official statement says.
According to the Friday statement by Italy’s oil giant Eni, which was repairing a faulty pipeline on the Tebidaba-Clough Creek line near the town of Azuzuama in Nigeria's southern Bayelsa State, the strong blast occured on Thursday as its maintenance crew was conducting repair work on it, Xinhua reported.
Four bodies were discovered floating on a river at the site of the explosion on Friday as search operations were still underway for more casualties, the report added, citing a local resident.
This is while the Italian company has so far confirmed that 12 people have died as a result of the explosion, which it said also left three others injured.
It further identified those killed in the incident as engineers conducting the repair work on the faulty pipeline. The company, however, did not mention the cause of the deadly explosion.
Meanwhile, an official of Nigeria's Bayelsa State, Iniro Wills, stated to reporters on Friday that the cause of the disaster was still under investigation, adding that the country’s environmental authorities had begun search efforts at the site of the blast.
The development came as nearly 300,000 barrels per day are reportedly lost to pipeline vandals who tap crude by damaging oil facilities along Nigeria’s southern region.
According to the report, Eni is currently in a joint venture with Nigeria’s state-run National Petroleum Corporation.
In 2006, more than 400 people lost their lives in pipeline explosions in and around the nation’s commercial hub, Lagos.
