DAMMAM, 8 February — Two people were slightly hurt when a fire broke out yesterday at the Ras Tanura oil refinery in the northeast of the Kingdom, according to an official of the state oil company which manages the facility.
"Two people were slightly injured and firefighters managed to put out the blaze," an official at Saudi Aramco said. Both were released after a checkup at the company’s medical facility.
The refinery, which has a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), "resumed normal operations," he said.
In a statement released yesterday evening, Saudi Aramco said that "two workers were overcome (by smoke) and were released from hospital after receiving the necessary treatment."
It said the fire, "which broke out around noon in one of the refinery’s pressure units ... was quickly brought under control." The fire caused "minor damage and did not affect production," the statement said, adding that the pressure units "were being brought back on stream."
The Aramco official said an investigation was under way to determine the causes of the incident. Nassir Hassan, Saudi, and Mama Tok Mola, Filipino were the employees who suffered slight injuries. They were discharged from the hospital after first aid.
A member of Aramco’s fire department said the fire was put out quickly and the operations were conducted smoothly. The team of fire fighters swung to action quickly and succeeded in isolating the line which was exposed to the accident and put out the fire in record time.
More than five million bpd of crude are exported from Ras Tanura terminal. The refinery is a big supplier of petroleum products to Asian buyers.
"The damage is assessed as minor, and the refinery (crude) charge and product supply were not affected. The compression plants have been started up," the company statement said.
