Another explosion rocks Chevron facility in Delta

Another explosion rocked Chevron’s Makaraba line in the wee hours of Friday, making the second time the same facility will come under attack.

It was learnt that the Makaraba line had been abandoned before yesterday’s explosion since last week’s attack on the offshore Okan manifold.
Before now, there have been attacks on Chevron facilities as Abiteye, Utunana and Makaraba platforms in Warri South-West area of Delta State were sabotaged leading to the loss of about 40,000 barrels per day.

A militant group, the Niger Delta Avengers had claimed responsibility of an earlier attack on the Makaraba line last week, even as the militant group had remained silent over Friday’s explosion on the same line.

It was also gathered that yesterday’s explosion could be attributed to the handiwork of some contractors working on the facilities.

A community source maintained that the explosion was not as a result of any attack by members of any militia group.

“There was a blast at well 10 around Makaraba. We may not be able to ascertain the time because those areas have already been shut down as a result of the Okan blast

“As a result of this, they are not producing. You can recall that they also blew up the Otunana/ Abiteye line before. So, they are not producing.

“But the information available to us now is that some of the contractors repairing the pipelines are using some boys to destroy more of the lines so that they’ll have more points to work on when they eventually commence repair works.

“This is because for the boys, the servicing companies pay them like N5m to N6m for each vandalised point to be repaired,” the source added.

However, efforts made to reach an official of Chevron, Mr. Victor Anyaegbudike, were not successful.