Fire at Shell Bukom

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Reuters
Wednesday, Sep 28, 2011

SINGAPORE - A fire has intensified at Royal Dutch Shell’s Singapore refinery, the company’s largest, a senior company executive said on Wednesday.

“There is a fire and it grew significantly, but I am not aware of an explosion,” said Lee Tzu Yang, chairman for Shell Companies in Singapore.

“My understanding is that there are no people injured.”

A Shell spokesman had initially said that the fire at the 500,000 barrels per day refinery, which broke out at around 0515 GMT, had been contained.

Eyewitnesses said explosions were heard and the fire worsened at the plant on Bukom Island. A dark cloud of smoke could be seen over mainland Singapore and the Jurong Island oil hub.

“The smoke has become much thicker and flames are rising up five to eight storeys every 15-20 minutes,” said a Reuters eyewitness.

Refinery sources said the fire occurred at an area where clean oil products were pumped from the plant’s secondary units via pipelines into storage tanks and into the wharf area for discharge into tankers as well as for loading.

Shell did not give any details on what operations have been affected. The complex, situated on the island of Pulau Bukom, comprises a 500,000 barrels-per-day refinery and an 800,000 tonnes-per-year cracker.

Source: www.asiaone.com