Singapore - Spa
A fire at a refinery in Singapore intensified Thursday but was still contained within the offshore site,
dpa quoted authorities as saying Thursday.
The fire at Royal Dutch Shell\'s Pulau Bukom refinery, five
kilometres south-west of the main island, started Wednesday
afternoon. There were no major injuries reported.
\"The firefighting operations are still ongoing,\" the Civil Defence
Force in an updated statement on its website.
\"There has been a surge in the fire at the manufacturing
facility,\" it said, adding that \"the fire is still contained within
the bund wall.\"
Cooling operations were being carried out to prevent heat exposure
to the nearby storage tanks, it said.
Local media reported that three explosions were heard at the site
around noon.
Shell said \"the fire has now been significantly reduced and is
contained to within a bunded area.\"
It said refinery units in the vicinity of the fire remained shut
down as a precaution.
\"We believe it was an accident,\" said Shell.
The Bukom site is Shell\'s largest refinery worldwide in terms of
crude distillation capacity with 500,000 barrels per day, according
to the company website.
Around 90 per cent of its production is exported.