Eroton Blames Sabotage for Buguma Gas Well Fire

Eroton Production and Exploration Company Limited has announced that illegal third party activity and sabotage was responsible for a gas fire broke out on the Buguma 10 gas well, a gas well located within Oil Mining Lease 18 (OML 18).

In a statement yesterday, the company said there have been no fatalities or spill into the environment resulting from this incident.

According to the company, “On the 8 January 2018, a gas fire broke out on the Buguma 10 gas well, a gas well located within Oil Mining Lease 18 (OML 18) that is operated by Eroton Exploration and Production Company Limited, operator of the Eroton/NNPC Joint Venture. Eroton had taken over operatorship of this OML from Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited in 2015.

“Preliminary checks with Eroton reveal that at it has promptly reported the incident to the relevant regulatory bodies including the Department of Petroleum Resources and the NOSDRA. Our investigations have further revealed that the well is a non-operational one having been safely secured by SPDC with a downhole plug and a Non Return Valve before transfer to Eroton.”

It added: “The cause of the fire is therefore likely to be from illegal third party activity/sabotage. Eroton is currently working to put out the fire and stabilize the conditions of the well. After this is done a full investigation will be carried out into the cause of the fire.”