Nigeria — Search called off for 2 missing foreign workers off Nigeria’s coast after fire.

Two foreign workers are presumed dead after an offshore rig exploded off Nigeria’s coast, officials said Thursday, the second such incident in the last month the oil-rich West African nation.

Chevron Corp. said in a statement early Thursday that it had stopped searching for the two missing workers after rescuing 152 others from the burning shallow-water rig, 6 miles (10 kilometers) off Nigeria’s coast.

“On behalf of Chevron, we extend our sincere condolences to the families of the missing individuals,” said Chevron official Andrew Fawthrop.

The two worked for FODE Drilling Ltd., which was operating the on Chevron’s behalf, said FODE Operations Manager Ian Laidlaw. He declined to give nationalities.

Chevron said it was investigating the fire from the gas exploration well, which occurred near its North Apoi oil platform and which forced it to shut down. However, Nigeria’s government believes a “gas kick” — a major build-up of gas pressure from drilling — was responsible, said Levi Ajuonoma, a spokesman for the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.

Chevron and other foreign oil companies in Nigeria pump crude oil in partnership with the state-run company. But experts say oil companies largely regulate themselves in a country where safety procedures are not enforced. Lawmakers approved a motion Thursday to investigate the cause of the incident and measure the losses it caused.

“It not’s enough for government to be looking for compensation,” said Nigerian safety consultant Jeff ‘vwede Obafor, “we should be heavy on prevention and professional discipline.”

A satellite image showed that the fire was at least 1,340 degrees Fahrenheit (nearly 730 Celsius), “hot enough to soften steel,” an independent watchdog group called SkyTruth said on its website.

Residents in the coastal community of Koluama 1 in Bayelsa State told the Nigerian group Environmental Rights Action the fire that has been burning for more than three days has made life difficult.

“Fishes are dying in great numbers in the ocean,” community chief Christian Munghanbofa-Akpele told Environmental Rights Action. “Apart from the dead fishes, we are even scared of eating those that may be caught alive because of the pollutants in the environment.”

Even at night, “everywhere is orange-red,” said Anna Orumo, another resident.

The accident comes just over three weeks after Nigeria saw its worst offshore oil spill in more than a decade.

The Royal Dutch Shell PLC spill from its Bonga deep-water field discovered on Dec. 20 was contained before reaching the West African nation’s coast, 75 miles (120 kilometers) away, Shell officials said. However, the company acknowledged that workers only discovered the leak after daylight broke, noticing a sheen surrounding the Bonga vessel. In the meantime, less than 40,000 barrels — or 1.68 million gallons — had already bled into the Atlantic Ocean.

Shell had said it would clean up another spill it discovered while containing their own, which the company said it had not caused.

Nigeria, an OPEC nation, is the fifth-largest crude oil exporter to the U.S. Nigeria and has proven natural gas reserves of about 5.29 trillion cubic meters. It produces about 2.4 million barrels of crude oil a day. However, more than 50 years of oil and gas production has taken a heavy environmental toll.

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South Korea — A South Korean fuel tanker has sunk after an explosion on board, leaving five crew members dead and six missing, the coastguard says.

The 4,191-tonne ship carrying 11 South Koreans and five Burmese citizens sank near Jawol island, about 32 kilometres off the port of Incheon in north-west South Korea where the vessel had unloaded its cargo, a coastguard spokesman said.

Yonhap news agency reported that the explosion was likely caused by gases leaking from the ship’s oil tanks, citing an official from the firm that owns the vessel.

“We believe that something went wrong during the process to take out remaining gas in the oil tank,” the Doora Shipping official told the agency.

“The vessel usually transports diesel, but this time it carried gasoline. We are now examining whether it had any relation to the explosion.”

The dead crew members included one South Korean, two Burmese citizens and two others whose nationalities have not been identified yet after their bodies were recovered later from the sea.

The two unidentified victims were among five South Koreans and three Myanmar crew who had been earlier reported missing, the spokesman said, adding an emergency operation involving dozens of patrol ships was ongoing.

Five others were rescued earlier.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the explosion, which happened in the Yellow Sea, but the coastguard says it is unlikely to be the result of any hostile action by North Korea.

“The explosion took place far below the sea border with North Korea. We see very little possibility [of attacks by the North],” the spokesman said.

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USA — Emergency workers are still trying to stop a leak today at a Carteret fuel refinery that has released 3,000 gallons of combustible liquid, authorities said.

All of the liquid spilling from a tank at the BP Products refinery, 76 Roosevelt Ave., was contained in a dyked area, Carteret Fire Chief Brian O’Connor said.

O’Brien said the product, reformate, which is used in blending fuel products, was first discovered leaking from a storage tank flange about 8 a.m. today. The tank holds 3 million gallons of the product, the chief said.

He said the liquid was being transferred another tank, and an environmental cleanup company was at the scene to remove the liquid that leaked from the flange.

The liquid is not flammable, and there was little chance of any combustion, O’Brien said.

He said firefighters sprayed foam over the liquid to keep down any fumes.

The Bristol Station apartments are less than a quarter-mile from the refinery, but there had been no reports of fumes at the apartments, O’Brien said.

He estimated the work to remove all the liquid and stop the leak would be completed by 9 p.m.

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Australia — The cause of a factory fire in Onehunga was accidental, the fire service has determined.

Dark clouds of smoke could be seen across Auckland as the fire took hold at Textile Products around 11am yesterday.

Around 50 firefighters battled the flames into the afternoon and one truck remained at the site until 10pm last night to ensure hot spots didn’t flare up.

Five people were treated for smoke inhalation as a result of the inferno.

Fire safety officer Ray Coleman says a rogue piece of metal got caught in machinery causing sparks which triggered the fire at the factory which manufactures home insulation products.

He says workers discovered the fire in a storage bin which catches the fibre from a shredder.

“They opened the door and saw the fire in the storage bin, they got a hose and tried to extinguish the fire.

“Unfortunately the fire was well established and spread to other material nearby and ultimately they just had to abandon what they were trying to do and get out of there until we got there.”

He says the recycled materials shredded for the insulation product – including carpet, rags and polypropylene – are not overly flammable except for the fact they were loosely packed together.

“It’s a little bit like cotton wool – you wave a match at cotton wool and it’s gone.

“This is similar in there’s a lot of airspace and room for burning to take place – it’s not a solid piece of material.”

He says workers should have called emergency services as soon as they discovered the blaze but says it is “human nature” to do what you can to nullify a fire before it gets out of hand.

Coleman says sprinklers, which were not installed at the factory, could have contained the blaze and would have instantly alerted the fire service.

Magnets within the machinery were in place to catch foreign metal but missed the piece which caused the fire.

Coleman says two “severely damaged” machines are all that remains from the building.
“All the iron, all the roof, all the walls, the floors, the mezzanine were gone and the steel joints had twisted because of the amount of heat involved, so the rear of the factory was utterly destroyed.”

A second building, in front of the destroyed factory, was not damaged and Coleman says the company continues to operate.

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USA — Clean-up from the diesel fuel spill that has affected waterways in Camden and Gloucester counties continued Friday morning.

While its unmistakable scent permeated the air, diesel fuel infiltrated waterways in parts of Gloucester and Camden counties Thursday, caused by the malfunction of a gasket connecting two 24-year-old underground fuel tanks at an NJ Transit bus depot here.

An estimated 26,000 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from two tanks into waterways used primarily for fishing and boating.

Washington Township Fire Department Chief John Hoffman said his firefighters were called to the 900 block of the Black Horse Pike around 7:50 a.m. for a report of an odor of fuel in the area. Minutes earlier, crews from Gloucester Township’s fire department received a similar call through Camden County’s 911 dispatch system.

Firefighters observed a sheen on the water and could detect a strong smell of fuel, but it wasn’t until two hours later that the source of the fuel was determined.

“Around 10 a.m., two firefighters and a representative from the Camden County HazMat Unit were able to backtrack it up a stream to the NJ Transit bus garage who were discovering around that time they had a leakage problem at their location,” Hoffman said.

All the while, crews laid absorbent booms at different locations in hopes of containing the fuel. It is believed the leak has been contained.

“It made it down to Blackwood Lake and further down into Big Timber Creek,” Hoffman said. “We’re comfortable it did not go further at the point where Deptford and Bellmawr meet. A boom is secured there to make sure it stops there.”

The garage, one of four Southern Division bus garages owned by NJ Transit, sits wedged between the Black Horse Pike and the Atlantic City Expressway. Wetlands and Nash’s Lake on the east side of the expressway feed into Grenloch Lake.

“A gasket failed on our storage tanks, which are fiberglass,” explained NJ Transit spokesman John Durso Jr. “There are two 16,000-gallon tanks underground. They were not full at the time, because they were involved in refueling the day before.”

The tanks were installed in 1988 when the garage was built and are scheduled to be replaced in 2013. Durso said the tanks were last inspected Dec. 22, 2011, as is mandated by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Nothing seemed out of place during the inspection, Durso said. One official speculated the gasket went bad sometime overnight. Approximately 3,000 gallons of fuel was recovered from the tanks Thursday.

All morning and afternoon, the odor of fuel was notable where Gloucester and Washington townships meet, making for an inconvenience, but not a health hazard for residents.

Hoffman noted that the nose can pick up the scent of diesel even in scant amounts.

“We’ve been metering all over in the affected areas along Grenloch Lake and elsewhere and there are no detectable amounts that raise flags as a threat to public safety,” Hoffman said.
Additionally, no potable water sources tap into any of the waterways associated with the lake. It eventually empties into the Delaware River.
Jim Manuel, region supervisor for Emergency Response with the state DEP, said because Grenloch Lake is a wide body of water, the diesel’s spread was slow. Had it been a narrower body, like a stream, it could have been worse.
Environmental contractor Clean Venture is handling the containment and cleanup.
“It cleans up easy, it’s not like a sticky sludge that gets all over,” Manuel said.
Authorities would not speculate as to how long a full cleanup will take. Durso said repair work on the tanks already has been authorized, but to what extent is unclear.
What could ultimately be the worst problem associated with the spill is the effect it will have on wildlife that call the water home.
Because diesel fuel is lighter than water, it settles on the surface. Creatures like geese, ducks and gulls, which float on the water, soak up the fuel in their feathers.
“We have DEP fish and wildlife people working on the situation,” Manuel said. “There apparently was some impact to primarily waterfowl.”
Clean Venture was expected to work until midnight Thursday and return this morning. Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research will be out to aid birds in the area.
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New Zealand — The Fire Service says a Hastings packaging plant which was completely destroyed in huge blaze overnight had outgrown its storage capacity and had been issued a letter following a previous fire last year.

The fire broke out around 9pm yesterday at Hawk Packaging, a company that makes egg crates and packaging for fruit on Tomoana Rd.

Eighteen people from six homes were evacuated by police as the fire threatened to spread to homes and four adjacent buildings.

It was the third blaze at the site, with the last two igniting in the plant’s paper store room within four months of each other.

Assistant area manager for the Hawke’s Bay, Nigel Hall, said the first fire, in October, was caused by a front loader scrapping the concrete, causing a spark and igniting paper.

He said the company was told about “some general housekeeping” following the incident.

“The premises has basically outgrown its capacity in relation to the storage of the product that they are producing.

“The packaging stack, from the Fire Service’s point of view, is too close to the premises.

“The owner knows this and they have been planning to move from this site for at least a year.”

Hawk Packaging general manager Tim Combs said he was aware the company was storing its packaging “too closely” to the side of the building.

The plant was “small” and there was “some challenges,” he said.

“The last two fires that we’ve had both started in our paper store room, which is a concern.”

“One of the reasons we were looking to shift was to be able to store products more efficiently than we currently have it.”

Combs said he has been looking at moving since he bought the business two years ago and the company was set to relocate in July.

“Essentially as soon as we came here we had a look at the business. We thought we needed to move forward over the next 10 years or so.

“Plans have been in place from as soon as we arrived, and so I’d like to think we’ve been working on addressing the necessary issues since we arrived here.”

He said the company has been working hard to reduce any fire risk.

“I’ve been in the paper industry for 20 years now and we never take fire risk lightly. It’s something that is always a priority for us.

But Combs said: “At the end of the day, that doesn’t excuse the fact that we still had a fire.”
Safety officers were at the plant to investigate the cause of the latest fire.

Hall said they suspected it might be a similar cause to the October fire, but it was not yet known.

Fire crews this morning remained at the scene, damping down areas and trying to control burning debris from crates, pallets, bins and paper trays.

Hawke’s Bay area commander Chris Nicoll said the danger of the fire spreading had passed and people were allowed back into their homes about 4am.

“We are watering down the perimeter to stop it spreading any further and allowing the centre to burn out. There is nothing recoverable, so we are just letting it burn out slowly.

“We’ll probably be here for another 24 hours,” he said.

“The plant has been completely destroyed, apart from the office block.”

Nicoll said there was a “huge mobilisation” last night, with 80 firefighters and 20 trucks at the height of the fire with some coming from Woodville, Dannevirke and as far as Palmerston North.

“It’s a fairly major fire. It’s probably as big as you get. It’s certainly as big as you want. You certainly have got limited resources in Hawke’s Bay and you wouldn’t want anything bigger than that. We really are struggling to try and control something like that.”

A firefighter was taken to Hawke’s Bay Hospital suffering from heat exhaustion about 2am.

The glow from the flames was visible in Napier and all over Hastings.

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UAE — Sharjah officials study plan to refloat ship.

An underwater inspection on Tuesday of a sunken oil tanker that foundered 500 metres off Al Hamriya Port on Sunday reveals no damage to the environment.

A 45-minute exploratory dive to the site lying 12 metres beneath the surface near a breakwater in the Gulf showed no signs of oil contamination. No oil could be seen on the surface over the site in a visit by Gulf News throughout the day yesterday.

The sunken vessel has been identified as Lady Moon, a 30-metre-long vessel registered outside of the UAE and flying under a Panamanian flag.

“There was some slight oil from the engine on the surface on Sunday and that was it,” said a port authority official yesterday. “So far, there has been nothing else.”

The clean bill of health comes after a source in the shipping industry told Gulf News yesterday that the vessel’s holds were empty as it struggled in high winds to re-enter port but was overcome by rough seas.

“It was loaded [with diesel fuel] when it left for another port but it came back empty. There was nothing in the tanker to leak out.”

Attempts by Gulf News to reach owners of the Lady Moon have not been successful. The Lady Moon is listed on various shipping registry websites as a small oil tanker of DWT242, built in 2006 and having the call sign of HP2859.

If the unidentified owner does not come forward, port officials said they are weighing re-floating the vessel themselves perhaps as early as next week.

Officials with the Ministry of Transportation visited the port yesterday to document the sinking.

A marine agent, meanwhile, is working on behalf of the Lady Moon’s crew of five Indian nationals who escaped the sinking.

The agent is working to secure travel documents to help the crew return home as early as this weekend following a complete investigation of the incident.

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UK — Planned maintenance means that Sizewell B power station at Sizewell, near Southwold is temporarily operating at half power.

Engineers took one of the nuclear station’s two turbines offline at 5am on Wednesday to carry out the work.

It is not known how long Turbine One will be out of service, but station owner EDF Energy said Turbine Two would continue to generate power safely for about one million homes.

The shutdown follows a steam leak in pipework that saw Turbine Two taken offline for just under a fortnight in November.

EDF Energy said the unit had been shut down to allow inspection and maintenance work to be carried out to the turbine exhaust pipework, well away from the nuclear area of the site.

The company may also take the opportunity to carry out additional maintenance while the unit is offline.

EDF Energy said the decision to take the turbine down was “a precautionary measure” following the repairs to the other turbine last year.

Sizewell B station director, Jim Crawford, said: “Safety is our overriding priority at Sizewell B power station.

“Excellent teamwork between our staff, EDF Energy headquarters and contactors allowed us to deal with last year’s steam leak, quickly and safely.”

“Although we have not suffered any similar problems with pipework relating to Turbine One, we decided to take the unit offline as a precautionary measure to allow us to carry out detailed inspection and maintenance work to ensure we don’t encounter any similar problems in the future.”

An EDF Energy spokesman added: “We will confirm when the unit has returned to service.”

Sizewell B’s turbines each have rows of blades on a long shaft.

Steam is used to spin the turbines by blowing over the blades.

Each shaft has a large electrical generator on the end, which, when spinning, sends electrical power out on to the grid.

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USA — Firefighters battle early morning ConocoPhillips blaze nearly four hours.

A “major emergency” fire that consumed most of a two-story office building Monday at a ConocoPhillips oil refinery was knocked down and did not affect any other refinery facilities, officials said.

The knockdown was declared shortly after 8 a.m., nearly four hours after the fire was reported, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence. A total of 166 firefighters battled the blaze, which was limited to an administrative building.

“This free-standing structure was located some distance away from the refinery itself,” Spence said. “At no time was the refinery or any petroleum products in jeopardy.”

Spence said the second floor and the attic of the structure appeared to be a total loss, but fire crews were able to save the first floor of the building, which is located in San Pedro.

The tiled roof of the building, which authorities estimate may be as much as 100 years old, partly collapsed as the blaze was being fought, complicating the effort.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, and no damage estimates were immediately available.

Oil company officials provided technical expertise on scene, Spence said.

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