BREAKING! Fire Explosion Rocks Flow Stations at Cawthorne Channel in Rivers State

A huge fire engulfed two flow stations around Cawthorne Channel in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State destroying the facilities and causing loss of lives.

Though details were still sketchy as at the time of this report, Kristina Reports gleaned from a viral video that the incident occurred about 30 nautical miles off the Bonny coastline.

Cawthorne Channel, an area flooded with oil and gas facilities, is on the western flank of Bonny LGA towards its boundary with Degema LGA also in Rivers State.

The video, which was shot by some community members in the area who were seen riding in an outboard powered speedboat and inspecting the scene of the incident, showed the two flow stations engulfed in huge flames on top of the sea.

From discussions between the occupants of the speedboat, the fire was allegedly by heat from a welding operation by staff of the company which owns the flow station and quickly spread to every part of both facilities.

In the said video, one of the occupants of the boat alerted the others of the arrival of personnel of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) who were being escorted by military gunboats as could be seen in the said video.

This has fueled speculations that the flow stations may be owned by the NNPCL which may have deployed a team to ascertain the state of things and provide a first instance situation report.

So far, neither the NNPCL or any other international oil and gas company (IOC) has made a statement on the incident.