The explosion and fire occurred at about 1:25 a.m. on Friday at the plant’s atmospheric residue desulphurisation unit (ARDS), which is in its commissioning stage, the company stated in a release.
Despite the fire the company noted that only one amongst the personnel sustained scratches and has already been discharged upon receiving medical consultation.
In the meantime, despite the slightly injured, no fatalities were reported and the fire was contained within 30 minutes.
Also, police authorities reported that two people were given outpatient treatment following the incident, which was attended to by five fire trucks and 30 staff from the Petronas RAPID Pengerang emergency response team, as Reuters noted.
Teams have been set up and are currently working closely with the relevant authorities to investigate the cause of the incident.
... Petronas commented.
The fire incident delays the company's plans for the refinery to reach commercial operations by October as several units will have to be shut for further inspection, Energy Aspects’ analyst Nevyn Nah stated.
Concluding, the refinery, which will process around 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil once fully operational, is planned to begin operations later in 2019 , and sell fuel to customers in Malaysia and across Southeast Asia.
