November 30, 2000 Nigeria Fears Fuel Crisis After Pipeline Tragedy

By REUTERS Filed at 6:18 p.m. ET

LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigerian fire crews fought late into Thursday night to douse a gasoline pipeline blaze near Lagos which killed more than 60 people close to the country's biggest depot for imported oil products.

State-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) which owns the depot faced further criticism over a string of tragedies at its facilities.

The oil-producing country of over 110 million people is gripped by a crippling gasoline shortage which can only get worse with the latest blaze coming just before the heavily traveled Christmas period.

The tragedy struck at Ebute-Oko, a fishing village opposite the central business district of Lagos across a lagoon. Villagers said the pipeline carrying gasoline from the NNPC's nearby Atlas Cove jetty had been leaking for nearly two months.

``We are tired of complaining,'' an elderly resident told state television.

``At least 60 people died in this needless fire,'' senior local official Karimu Alabi said at the scene.

Many of the dead were fishermen incinerated alive in their dugout canoes as fire spread rapidly along the line of the oil leak.

Witnesses said the fire was ignited by a wood stove where a woman was cooking in the open as oil spread along the beach.

The blaze swept through a cluster of ramshackle log cabins, killing villagers and women preparing to take fish to market.

Almost simultaneously, a separate fire ravaged Makoko shantytown where thousands of fishermen and their families live in wood houses on stilts in the lagoon near Lagos University. There were no reports of deaths there.

Residents said Makoko inhabitants had been scooping up leaking gasoline from the burst pipeline and storing it in jerrycans in their wood cabins.

Some badly burned victims from Ebute-Oko were brought to Makoko in canoes, only to find their homes burned out.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest oil exporter, has been plagued by oil fires that have killed hundreds of people over the past two years, mostly in the Nigeria Delta which produces most of the country's crude. The last such blaze was on July 10, when at least 250 villagers scavenging fuel from a pipeline died when the fuel exploded.

NNPC blames the disasters on oil thieves who puncture pipelines criss-crossing the country to tap gasoline for sale on the thriving black market.

Fuel scarcity has been a regular feature of Nigerian life for years due to neglect of the country's four refineries during years of corrupt military rule. NNPC is forced to import large quantities of oil products.

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nigeria.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), November 30, 2000

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Nando Times

Nigerian pipeline fire kills dozens

The Associated Press

LAGOS, Nigeria (November 30, 2000 6:10 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Dozens of people trying to take gasoline from a gushing pipeline were burned alive Thursday when the liquid exploded into flames.

There was no official figure for the number of victims, but witnesses and reporters estimated the dead at between 30 and 60.

The fire also destroyed shacks in nearby squatter camps at Atlas Cove near the Lagos port of Apapa.

The pipeline, owned by the state Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., carries refined fuel from the port to a depot where it is loaded on trucks and taken to Nigerian cities.

A state oil company official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were many dead - people of all ages and both sexes - in the blast and fire, which he blamed on thieves.

Company spokesman Ndu Ughamadu said the number killed may never be known because relatives were collecting bodies to avoid prosecution.

The practice of "scooping," the name for the process of vandalizing and gathering fuel from pipelines, is common among impoverished Nigerians despite the risk of fire or harsh punishment.

Some government critics have accused corrupt officials of turning a blind eye to the practice in return for a share of the profits from fuel sales.

Residents said the pipeline began spouting fuel about a week before the blast, causing large pools to form on the ground.

Ughamadu said unidentified criminals were responsible for the leak.

Firefighters worked to put out the fire late Thursday, 12 hours after the blaze broke out. Several charred corpses were in the area.

Hundreds of Nigerians have died this year alone in similar pipeline fires.

Nigeria is the world's sixth largest oil-producing nation.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), November 30, 2000.