
TOKYO:
Japanese oil refiner TonenGeneral Sekiyu KK said several workers were
injured when a fire broke out on Saturday in the residue hydrocracking
unit of its Kawasaki plant near Tokyo, but that other refining units
were operating normally.
The fire originated from the reactor of
the 31,000 barrel per day hydrocracking unit during cleaning work at
around 0440 GMT, the company said in a statement.
The unit, which
processes low-priced heavy oil into lighter products such as gasoline,
has been shut since early February for maintenance, a company spokesman
said.
The company has plans to raise the capacity of the unit to
34,500 bpd this month to meet government rules on improving efficiency.
TonenGeneral
said the fire had almost been brought under control by pumping nitrogen
into the unit. Six workers were treated in hospital and one of them was
been admitted. Local officials said the fire had not spread to the
surrounding facilities.
TonenGeneral said it was continuing
normal operations at crude distillation and other secondary units at the
Kawasaki plant, which has a capacity of 335,000 barrels per day, and
that there had been no impact to shipments from either its marine or
truck terminals.
However, it was not yet clear what had caused
the fire, how much damage had been done to the hydrocracking unit, or
when it would resume operations, a company spokesman said.