5 die in refinery naphtha blast
Source: Agencies |
April 4, 2010, Sunday
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FIVE employees have been killed and two critically injured in a fire at the Tesoro Corp oil company's 120,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Anacortes, Washington, cutting production to about one-third of capacity.
The fire started in the highly flammable naphtha unit, which was undergoing maintenance, at 12:30am on Friday and was contained by 2am.
Four workers - two women and two men - were airlifted to hospital in Seattle, about 113 kilometers south of the refinery, with severe burns. The two women later died and the two men remained in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The blaze shut the plant's hydro-processing units, the company's chief financial officer said, adding that other units could be shut after a damage assessment.
The crude distillation unit was still running but the plant was only at one-third capacity, a spokesman said.
Earlier, the company said it was running at 70 to 75 percent capacity.
The Tesoro Anacortes fire is the deadliest accident involving production at a US refinery since the BP Texas City explosion on March 23, 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured 180.
Tesoro, which was cited for violations at the Anacortes plant in 2008, said it planned to make up any lost production by boosting output at its other West Coast refineries.
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said it was sending a team of investigators.
"It's a major case," said CSB spokesman Daniel Horowitz.
The US Energy Information Administration said this week there were 32.5 million barrels of gasoline in inventory on the West Coast, well above what is needed to supply the region.
"(West Coast) stockpiles are more than 10 percent higher than last year," said David Hackett, president of energy consultancy Stillwater Associates. "Inventories are very healthy, especially for this time of year."
The fire started in the highly flammable naphtha unit, which was undergoing maintenance, at 12:30am on Friday and was contained by 2am.
Four workers - two women and two men - were airlifted to hospital in Seattle, about 113 kilometers south of the refinery, with severe burns. The two women later died and the two men remained in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.
The blaze shut the plant's hydro-processing units, the company's chief financial officer said, adding that other units could be shut after a damage assessment.
The crude distillation unit was still running but the plant was only at one-third capacity, a spokesman said.
Earlier, the company said it was running at 70 to 75 percent capacity.
The Tesoro Anacortes fire is the deadliest accident involving production at a US refinery since the BP Texas City explosion on March 23, 2005 that killed 15 workers and injured 180.
Tesoro, which was cited for violations at the Anacortes plant in 2008, said it planned to make up any lost production by boosting output at its other West Coast refineries.
The US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said it was sending a team of investigators.
"It's a major case," said CSB spokesman Daniel Horowitz.
The US Energy Information Administration said this week there were 32.5 million barrels of gasoline in inventory on the West Coast, well above what is needed to supply the region.
"(West Coast) stockpiles are more than 10 percent higher than last year," said David Hackett, president of energy consultancy Stillwater Associates. "Inventories are very healthy, especially for this time of year."
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