There are indication that the country’s economy may plummeted further, as it losses about 10,000 barrels per day of oil production to an explosion at Oil Mining Lease (OML) 40 operated by the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), an upstream subsidiary of the corporation.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which confirmed the incident in a statement signed by General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division of NNPC, Kennie Obateru, said the explosion occurred while carrying out production evacuation at Gbetiokun early production facility (EPF).

The corporation said there were no fatalities or injuries and no significant spill during the incident.

“There was, however, significant damage to the marine storage vessel, MT Harcourt, which will impact production by about 10,000 barrels per day,” the statement read.

The corporation further said it has commenced investigation to ascertain the cause of the incident with a view to avert future occurrence.