Posted: 29 September 2011 2041 hrs
(www.channelnewsasia.com)
SINGAPORE: As the fire at Shell's Pulau Bukom refinery continues, the company says it will shut down the whole facility if that's what it takes to put out the blaze completely. A full shutdown will take two days.
The company has shut several units in the vicinity of the fire at the 500,000-barrels-a-day refinery including a hydrocracker, Shell said earlier.
Speaking at a media conference on Thursday evening, Shell Singapore chairman Lee Tzu Yang said they are working to identify the source that is still feeding the fire which broke out on Wednesday afternoon.
The fire is confined to a pump house and a complex interconnected system of pipelines. The pipes are no longer in use but still contain fuel, which causes flares when the pipes open up under fire.
Shell Vice-President of Manufacturing Operations East, Martijn van Koten, said the fire is likely related to maintenance work that was being carried out at the time.
However, he declined to give details saying this would be pure speculation.
Shell said investigations will be carried out after the fire is put out, which remains its firm priority.
Mr van Koten said the strategy is to starve the fire and contain it in an area where it can be put out.
Fresh explosions were heard at the refinery around noon on Thursday.
Witnesses at the Pasir Panjang port and at West Coast said they saw more black smoke and fireballs shooting into the sky.
Ben Koh, an eyewitness at Pasir Panjang port, said: "The fireball was 10, 20 metres in height. After that I can see small flames, but ... from a small portion of the island."
He said the smoke got thicker, with the smell of petrol in the air. "It's not really that strong, but you can smell it," he added.
Shell said in a statement that it experienced a surge in the fire at the refinery around noon, but the fire remains contained.
It said the surge in the fire was caused by the remnants of light fuel components where the fire started.
The company said the smoke that several callers to the Channel NewsAsia news hotline said they saw was from hydrocarbons that are not fully combusted.
Shell said it is working closely with the SCDF, and its global fire consultants are also on site to provide input to the team.
In a separate statement earlier Thursday, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said fire fighting operations are still underway, but the fire is contained within the bund wall.
SCDF said about 20 water jets are being used to carry out boundary cooling operations to prevent heat exposure to the nearby storage tanks.
Two SCDF fire engines were badly damaged by the fire and one fire engine sustained partial damage.
SCDF said early Thursday that it has about 100 fire fighters fighting the fire with six fire engines and 13 support vehicles.
About 250 essential Shell personnel are also on Pulau Bukom helping with the operations.
The company also said that the six Shell firefighters injured while fighting the initial outbreak have gone back to their normal duties following medical attention.
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