The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has criticised Anglo-French hydrocarbon producer Perenco for what it termed its “pivotal role” in the deaths of six workers in an offshore platform fire off Gabon.
In a new report, the London-based NGO blamed “top-down control exerted by the French office of the Perenco Group” for the March 2024 fire at the Becuna platform off Gabon’s southeast coast.
Petrol Minister Marcel Abeke has referred to the tragedy as the “most serious in the history of oil exploitation in our country”.
The 48-page report described video footage showing significant volumes of crude oil erupting several meters high and spilling onto the platform, which they say likely caused a fire at the installation.
The Perenco Group, a privately-owned oil and gas company, reacted to the report on Friday, telling AFP that it “contains a large number of false and defamatory allegations”, without commenting further.
The EIA said the fire was essentially down to poor maintenance of the platform and malfunctioning equipment, as well as a lack of safety equipment which might have prevented the blaze.
In its report, the NGO said it based its information on more than four years of investigations, including conversations with whistleblowers, undercover interviews and big data analysis.
It cited testimonies saying that two weeks before the explosion, there had been two oil eruptions on the same platform which prompted several employees to request being reassigned to another workplace, “fearful for their lives”.
The EIA also alleged there had been a “possible cover up of the fatal accident through alleged pressuring of witnesses”, as well as obstruction of auditors, collusion and corruption, suggesting that a report by Gabonese authorities could have been squashed.
Perenco chairman Francois Perrodo presented Gabon’s then-transition leader, President Brice Oligui Nguema, with a preliminary report on the circumstances of the May 2024 accident, and told state television the company would be “transparent” about what had happened and why.
But the EIA alleged that independent government-mandated experts had not been allowed to access the platform in the days following the accident.
Testimonies from the report also suggested that “the findings of an audit report commissioned by the government were concealed from Gabonese President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema and key members of his cabinet”, it added.
The Gabonese presidency did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
With a GDP per capita of 7,802 dollars in 2023, Gabon is one of Africa’s relatively wealthier countries, with oil production playing a key economic role in a nation of just 2.3 million inhabitants.
