Buguma fire outbreak: HOSTCON blames SPDC/NNPC for negligence

Following the outbreak of fire at Buguma wellhead 008, operated by NNPCL/SPDC Joint Venture (JV) in Buguma, Asare-Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State, the Host Communities Producing Oil, Gas and Pipeline Impacted States Youth Council of Nigeria (HOSTCON) have accused the NNPCL/SPDC Joint Venture (JV) of negligence.

They said that the fire incident, which has rendered the entire Buguma and its environs in a terrible situation, could have been avoided had the NNPCL/SPDC JV carried out quarterly checks on pipelines and oil infrastructures that have been laid for decades in the swamp of the Niger Delta region.

In an emergency meeting on the devastating fire incident, the President of HOSTCON, along with the entire national leadership and the Board of Trustees of the Youth Council of Nigeria, condemned the attitude and negligence of the SPDC/NNPCL JV, who are the companies responsible for OML 008 Oil wellhead in Buguma.

The statement issued by the president of the group, Fiawei Pathfinder, partly read: “We express pain and deep lamentation over the devastating fire incident and commiserate with the people of Buguma host community and environs who have been inundated by the fire.

“And since the life-threatening dangerous fire outbreak occurred in Buguma community, SPDC/NNPCL never paid attention, nor did they quickly send in their emergency fire incident response team to be on the ground to ascertain the level of the devastation caused by the fire.

“So, they can see for themselves the deadly effect the hazard from the fire outbreak has caused the people of Buguma host community and its neighbouring host communities who cannot do their fishing business and continue with other means of livelihood to survive.

“We are pained that SPDC/NNPCL JV deliberately ignored the people of Buguma community and the entire Kalabari Kingdom, who are major oil and gas producing communities.

“A Kingdom that contributes a high figure of crude oil and cubic of gas on a daily basis to sustain the economy is being neglected to their fate despite the enormity and gravity of the raging fire. We condemn this despicable attitude of SPDC and NNPCL towards our people in strong terms.

“The truth is that it is the decay of these oil infrastructures and their negligence because there are no proper structures that have been put in place to crosscheck to ascertain if they are in good shape or decayed because these pipelines have been laid for over how many decades and no maintenance job carried on them.

“If there’s a timely checking of them maybe every four months or maybe thrice in a year to check them with equipment to know their state, all these would not happen, but the company doesn’t do it. Now, they are coming up to pick an offence that the fire outbreak was caused by illegal bunkers who attempted to vandalise the wellhead.

“So, we must put the blame on the negligence and decay of the oil pipelines that are long overdue for maintenance, which are operated by SPDC and NNPCL.

“HOSTCON Youth Council of Nigeria demands that SPDC/NNPCL should immediately construct housing structures and healthcare facilities for Buguma host community and its environs.

“We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is the substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, to set up a Panel of Inquiry of competent experts drawn from the presidency, law enforcement officers, and the Federal Ministry of Justice to ascertain the causes of this devastating and life-threatening fire outbreak.

“Anybody found culpable should be punished adequately to serve as a deterrent to other IOCs. Proper remediation of the waterways and the entire environment must be carried out from the wellhead into the environment.

“We demand urgent maintenance and replacement of the decayed oil infrastructures. All the members of the host communities affected must be adequately compensated by NNPCL/SPDC JV.

“Provision of pipe-borne water should be provided for Buguma host community and others. At this juncture, we want to boldly state that if our demands are not met, we will take a drastic decision as Council after due consultation.”

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