VNF Detects Oil Container Explosion

By Tamara Sparks

VIIRS Nightfire detected the Trinity Spirit, a floating oil production, storage, and offloading vessel, which exploded and caught fire off the coast of Nigeria early on Feb 2, 2022. The Suomi NPP satellite overpass at 00:47 UTC first detected the blaze, with an average temperature of 1043K for detections in the area. Almost an hour later at 01:36 UTC, the NOAA-20 satellite saw the fire burning hotter, averaging 1410K. These temperatures are lower than the average gas flaring temperature at the site, 1718K. Reporting says the site had been inactive prior to this incident, which is confirmed by the VNF flaring temporal profile showing very little flaring activity since early 2020.

February 4, 2022