Okpoama Kingdom in Brass Local Council of Bayelsa State is terrified by a deadly gas leakage from an oil well belonging to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

The leakage, which occurred along the Bendick-Kiri axis of the kingdom, had been spewing oil and gas into the environment from a well’s Christmas tree.

The oil well, located in OML 66 and known in the records as Kurogbagba 1, was said to have been leaking for the past five days spewing oil and gas into the creeks.

A threatening hissing sound from the pressure forcing the oil and gas out of the wellhead, which could be heard from over a kilometer, forced fishermen out of their settlement for fear of fire outbreak.

Leader of the fishermen in Bendick-Kiri, Monday Okon, who hails from Akwa Ibom State, confirmed that all the fishermen had left because of the pungent smell of the gas and oil as well as fear of inferno.

He said: “We are afraid the place will be up in flames because we are very close to the oil well.  If we catch fish, we cannot dry them. I am here because the community asked me to stay nearby and inform them when people come.”

Okon noted that it was the third time the leakage happened, but the latest was the most serious.

Last May, the 53-year-old abandoned oil well leaked and was contained before it blew out again last Friday.

Former Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Tarinyo Akono, who visited the site on Monday, described the blow-out as intense and extremely dangerous for the people and the environment.

“I was there in May this year when there was a blow-out. I was there and now this sad occurrence. The people’s livelihood has been truncated. I have called on the NPDC to do something about these wells and they are over fifty of them,” he said.