Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell plc today said it contained a fire at its worldwide largest refinery in Singapore and shut down neighboring units as a precaution.
The fire at the Pulau Bukom refinery, about five kilometres south-west from Singapore’s mainland, started yesterday afternoon and flared up again in the evening.
Some company firefighters suffered heat exhaustion and minor injuries, but “no one was seriously hurt,” Shell said in a statement.
All staff were accounted for and non-essential staff had been evacuated, it added.
Shell said the fire had been contained within an area of approximately 150m by 50m.
“We believe it was an accident,” the statement said.
The Bukom site is Shell’s largest refinery globally in terms of crude distillation capacity with 500,000 barrels per day, according to the company website.
It said 90 percent of Bukom’s products were exported to countries in the Asia Pacific region and beyond.
