UpdateRefinery closes processing units after fire

31 October 2007 17:02  [Source: ICIS news]

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LONDON (ICIS news)--Switzerland's Petroplus has shutdown several processing units at its refinery in Coryton, UK, after an explosion and fire, it said on Wednesday.

 

The company did not say which products were affected but described the shutdown as a precaution.

 

Firefighters had extinguished the blaze that is thought to have followed an explosion, said a spokesman from the UK Health and Safety Executive.

 

The fire was on the ground floor of a naphtha tower and flames were reported to have risen more than 30 metres up the column, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service said in a statement earlier.

 

All staff at the refinery have been accounted for. The HSE spokesman added that two people who were reported as missing had since been found.

 

Located in the river Thames estuary 30 miles east of London, the Coryton refinery produces butane, propane, sulphur, propylene, bitumen, fuel oil, jet fuel and gasoline.

 

Coryton’s throughput capacity for crude oil alone is 172,000 bbl/day, with the capability to deliver an additional 70,000 bbl/day of other feedstocks.

 

Petroplus was unavailable to comment on potential production outages caused by the fire.

 

Essex police said they had received a call at 11:30 GMT that stated there had been an explosion at the site and that the tower was on fire. There was a cloud of smoke moving towards Canvey Island but this was not toxic, a spokesman said.

 

Petroplus bought the refinery from energy major BP in June 2007 for $1.6bn.

 

Additional reporting from Mark Watts

By: Lucy Craymer
+44 20 8652 3214

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