Illegal refinery explosion in Nigeria kills 12

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — At least 12 people were killed Friday in an explosion and fire near an illegal oil refinery in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region, police said, though residents of the region reported a number of additional casualties. The fire was active for hours.

The explosion in the municipality of Emuoha, in the state of Rios, in the south of the country, occurred near an oil pipeline attacked by illegal refinery operators who were trying to steal crude, the door said. -state police spokesman Grace Iringe-Koko.

“We are aware that there was an explosion related to bunkering activities,” he said, adding that authorities were working to determine the death toll and the cause of the crash.

Area residents told The Associated Press that dozens of people may have died in the fire that lasted several hours and that most of the victims were young people who planned to remove crude from the pipeline and take him to an illegal refinery in at least five vehicles.

According to Fyneface Dumnamene, executive director of the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, a spark from the exhaust pipe of a bus loaded with liters (gallons) of oil caused the explosion as the driver tried to drive away.

“All occupants of the five vehicles were burned,” Dumnamene told the AP.

Illegal refineries are a lucrative business in Nigeria, one of Africa’s biggest crude producers. They are most common in the crude-rich Nile Delta region, where most of the country’s oil facilities are located.

Workers at these factories rarely follow safety rules, often leading to fires like the one that killed more than 100 people in Imo state last year.

Between January 2021 and February 2022, Nigeria lost at least $3 billion worth of crude oil to thefts. Executives of these companies often evade regulators by building refineries in remote areas like Imo, the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission reported last year.