Tragic oil rig fire leaves five workers dead and one missing in Gabon
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A fatal fire on Perenco’s Becuna oil platform off Gabon’s coast has claimed five lives, with one worker still missing, marking the most
severe tragedy in the nation’s oil exploration history.
The Becuna platform operated by Perenco in Gabon’s Simba field suffered a lethal blaze, resulting in five deaths and one missing worker
Perenco is supporting bereaved families and continuing the search for the remaining lost worker
This is the latest in a series of oil and gas industry accidents in Africa, highlighting growing concerns over safety in the sector.
In detail:
Five oil workers are dead and one missing after a fire broke out on an oil platform off the coast of Gabon.
The incident occurred on a platform operated by Anglo-French oil company Perenco. Perenco confirmed the deaths at its Becuna platform in the Simba oil and gas field in a statement.
The company said in a statement: “We deeply regret to confirm that there have been five fatalities and one person is still missing. Our thoughts are with the bereaved families and we are focused on supporting them at this time.
“Emergency teams continue to be deployed on site and to search for the missing person.”
The incidents occurred during a workover – a process which normally refers to the process of pulling in or replacing production hardware in order to extend the life of the rig.
Two injured workers were part of a group of seven who were evacuated. One of those was hospitalised after suffering a leg injury and another was transported to the capital city of Libreville after suffering a severe burn.
Gabon Minister of Petroleum, Marcel Abeke, said: “This tragedy, the worst in the history of oil exploration in our country, is a cruel reminder of the danger associated with this activity, and the necessity to do everything to prevent and control industrial risks.”
In a separate incident in May 2022, an environmental disaster was narrowly averted at a different Perenco facility in Gabon when 300,000 barrels of crude oil leaked from a storage tank.
Fortunately, the oil leaked into retention tanks rather than into the coastal ecosystem.
Seven of these were reported in Africa – up from two in 2020.
However, many more fatalities and injuries occur in more ad hoc oil and gas installations across Africa.
For instance, in October 2023, 15 people were killed in an explosion and fire at an illegal oil refinery site in Nigeria’s Niger Delta region.
The incident occurred in the southern river state’s Emohua district, where illegal refineries are common. According to media reports, the victims of the fire were trying to refine oil removed from a vandalised pipeline when the explosion occurred.
