Manhunt on for suspects as 100 die in Nigeria blast

Abuja: At least 100 people may have died in a refinery explosion in southeast Nigeria, an official said on Sunday as the search intensified for bodies at the site and for two people suspected of being involved in the blast.

The explosion on Friday night at the Ohaji-Egbema local government area in Imo state was triggered by a fire at two fuel storage areas where more than a 100 people worked, state officials told The Associated Press.

Dozens of workers were caught up in the explosion while many others attempted to escape the blaze by running into wooded areas.

Those who died in the disaster are estimated to be within the range of 100 , said Goodluck Opiah, the Imo commissioner for petroleum resources. A lot of them ran into the bush with the burns and they died there.

Although Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of crude oil, for many years its oil production capacity has been limited by a chronic challenge of oil storage and the operation of illegal refineries.

Nigeria lost at least USD3 billion worth of crude oil to theft between January 2021 and February 2022, with shady business operators often avoiding regulators by setting up refineries in remote areas such as the one that exploded in Imo, the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) said in March.