A TotalEnergies-operated FPSO off the coast of Nigeria has spilled more than 100,000 gallons of oil in a loading accident, according to Nigerian spill-response officials, and a cleanup and monitoring operation is ongoing.
On the morning of November 15, the Egina FPSO released about 3,000 barrels of oil from a loading export hose failure, according to Nigeria's National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA).
“This is not a massive leak and the sheen has been treated with the appropriate response that resulted in a reduction of most of it. No shoreline or communities have been impacted. Production has not been affected," TotalEnergies Country Communications Manager Charles Ebereonwu said in a brief statement.
TotalEnergies' team is using dispersants to break up the slick, according to Nigerian maritime agency NIMASA. NOSDRA, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), and the NUPRC's Emergency Response Center have also been involved.
“The spill was not a minor one, it was the response strategy that we put in place that resulted in limited impact and we have been tracing and tracking the oil slick and supervising response efforts," NOSDRA Director Idris Musa told local media.
The Egina FPSO is far offshore, about 90 nm to the west of the island of Bioko, Equatorial Guinea. The oil slick is not expected to reach shore.
Egina is among the largest FPSOs ever built, measuring in at 220,000 tons deadweight and 1,100 feet in length. The FPSO is Total's largest to date and also the largest installed in Nigeria. The project is also among Nigeria's most sophisticated ultra-deepwater projects.
At its peak, the Egina field put out about 200,000 barrels of oil per day, which represented more than 10 percent of Nigeria’s overall production.
(maritime-executive.com, November 28, 2023)
