Three of the ten crew members of the oil tanker that exploded off the coast of Nigeria were found alive, according to the operator of the FPSO Trinity Spirit on Sunday. The body of one deceased crew member was found in the vicinity of the incident and seven others are still missing.
On Wednesday, February 2, the Trinity Spirit exploded, broke in half and partially sank. Ten crew members working aboard the vessel were reported missing and initially feared dead, so the news of the survivors was welcomed.
“We can confirm that three (3) crew members have been found alive in the community and our priority is to ensure that they receive the proper medical attention they need,” CEO Ikemefuna Okafor said in a statement. “The focus of our joint efforts is to prioritize investigations to establish the whereabouts, safety and security of the seven crew members who remain missing, clean up and limit damage to the environment and establish the cause of the explosion.”
The Trinity Spirit was a monohull VLCC built in 1976 and converted to FPSO in 1997. It was acquired by Conoco and deployed at the Ukpokiti field in the Niger Delta in the early 2000s. Conoco resold it to an independent company in 2006, and it has since been managed by a Houston, Texas-based company, according to its Equasis filing.
In recent years, it operated on a bareboat charter basis for Sepcol, the heir to the Ukpokiti field. Traders said the vessel was aged, poorly maintained and little used. Nigeria’s oil ministry said the field has not been in production for the past two years.
Nigerian officials indicated that efforts were underway to contain the environmental damage to the vessel and that they planned to conduct a full investigation into the cause of the incident.
