Five dead in fire at petroleum products complex in Johor
KUALA LUMPUR: A fire killed five people at an oil refining and petrochemicals complex in southern Malaysia owned by Petronas and Saudi Aramco, the authorities said yesterday.
It was the second fire in less than a year at the US$27 billion (S$38 billion) Pengerang integrated complex (PIC) in Johor.
Petronas and Saudi Aramco each have a 50 per cent stake in the Pengerang Refining and Petrochemical (PRefChem) joint venture, which owns and operates the refinery and some petrochemical plants at PIC.
UNDER CONTROL
The Johor fire and rescue department said the fire and a blast occurred on Sunday night at the diesel hydro treater unit, which was removing sulphur from raw diesel using hydrogen gas.
Besides the fatalities, one person suffered burns, the fire department said, adding the cause was under investigation.
State news agency Bernama cited PRefChem as confirming the fire and saying "the situation is under control".
In April last year, an explosion and fire occurred at the plant's atmospheric residue desulphurisation (ARDS) unit, which removes sulphur from fuel oil. There were no casualties in that fire.
The ARDS has been scheduled for operation by mid-2020, and full commercial operations for PRefChem was targeted for the second half of this year.
The refinery, which will process around 300,000 barrels per day of crude oil once fully operational, is expected to sell fuel to customers across South-east Asia. - REUTERS
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