•Crew unaccounted for
The fate of 12 crew members of the ill-fated tugboat, Jascon 4, belonging to a contractor working for Chevron Nigeria Limited in Escravos area of Delta State remains uncertain last night nearly 48 hours after the accident.
It was gathered that divers searching for the sunken vessel, owned by a subsidiary of Sea Trucks Group (STG), West Africa Ventures, located it yesterday.
The vessel was towing a foreign crude oil tanker from the sea to the Single Bouy Mooring (SBM) #3, a terminal located about 30km off Escravos, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
Sources said because of the size of the tankers it was necessary to use smaller vessels as the Jascon 4 to guide them to the load facility before they are filled.
It was during the course of performing the routing tension tow that the incident occurred.
The Nation learnt that there were 11 Nigerians and one expatriate, whose identity was not immediately known, on board.
Sources said there were no signs of survivors or the remains of victims, despite patrol by a search and rescue team deployed by Chevron.
The development erased any hope of finding any of the dozen crew members alive.
Chevron’s General Manager, Policy Government and Public Affairs Deji Haastrup confirmed that none of the crew members had been found.
But he neither confirmed nor deny our inquiry on whether the vessel had been located.
“I can only confirm that they are still conducting a search and rescue operation and so far they have still not been able to find anyone.”
A source at the offshore loading facility, owned by CNL, told our reporter that most of the crew members were sleeping in their cabins with doors locked from the inside, when the accident occurred.
Our source, who pleaded for anonymity, said: “It was about 5am when the accident occurred. The vessel was one of the three towing a tanker to the loading point when it occurred.
“The sea was very rough and the wave was beating on the vessel and it was windy and turbulent.
“The tension rope snapped and obviously unbalanced the vessel thereby causing it to capsize,” our source added.
It was gathered that two officials from STG in the US are on their way to Nigeria as part of a fact-finding mission to the scene tomorrow.
It was further learnt that a fact-finding mission comprising the two experts, official of the Nigeria Maritime and Security Agency (NIMASA), CNL and some other government functionaries would visit the scene tomorrow.
“They have located the vessel in the belly of the ocean, but because the cabins were apparently locked when the accident occurred.”
Expectedly, reports of the incident caused panic among families who have relatives working for Chevron and its contractors yesterday.
A source at the Escravos Tank Farm told our reporter that the company was inundated with several calls from relatives desperate to speak to their relations.
