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Pertamina lubricant refinery explodes
An explosion at a refinery belonging to state oil and gas company PT Pertamina’s Unit IV in Cilacap, Central Java, occurred on Sunday morning, causing a halt in production at the refinery for an indefinite period
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n explosion at a refinery belonging to state oil and gas company PT Pertamina’s Unit IV in Cilacap, Central Java, occurred on Sunday morning, causing a halt in production at the refinery for an indefinite period.
The head of the refinery unit’s public relations division, Kurdi Susanto, said the explosion occurred at around 9:30 a.m. local time at Lube Oil Complex (LOC) I, one of the three LOCs in the compound.
“We can assure the public that the explosion will not disturb the supply of fuel in the country because the affected area did not process fuel products such as gasoline or diesel fuel,” Kurdi told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
In Jakarta, Pertamina spokesman Basuki Trikora Putra confirmed the explosion at its facility in Cilacap, but said it would not affect production.
He said the blast resulted from a flash at a furnish cylinder of a lubricant oil cooling unit, located away from the oil refinery.
“The main refinery is safe and production remains unaffected by the accident,” Basuki said.
Kurdi Susanto said two employees were admitted to hospital following the explosion. “They are conscious but still in a state of shock,” he added.
Kurdi said the explosion occurred at a refinery that processed base oil, or raw materials for lubricants.
“We have succeeded in containing the explosion. Nothing severe will follow,” Kurdi said.
The explosion, he went on, was a momentary flash that produced only smoke and did not break out into flames.
“We are still investigating the cause of the explosion. We don’t know what caused it,” he said.
Witnesses said the explosion caused a very loud noise that could be heard 5 kilometers away.
“It also caused the ground to shake, creating panic among residents living in the vicinity. We were even prepared to evacuate should anything worse happen,” Farikh Hermanto, whose house is located just 300 meters away from the refinery, said.
Farikh added that following the explosion, he saw flames shoot out of the refinery, but that they only lasted briefly, followed by thick smoke.
“At this point, we had all started up our motorcycles, ready to flee in case of fire, as has occurred previously,” he said.
Sunday’s explosion was not the first to have occurred at the Cilacap refinery.
In June last year, a unit at LOC II that processed diesel fuel and kerosene exploded, prompting a stop in the production of fuel products at the refinery for 10 days, subsequently causing a drop by up to 30 percent of the refinery’s normal production volume.
The largest explosion occurred 15 years ago when flames spewing from the exploded refinery could not be put out for about a week, causing a complete stoppage of production at the refinery.
Pertamina’s Cilacap unit is one of the country’s seven largest fuel processing units. It has the capacity to produce 348,000 barrels of fuel per day, mostly in the form of gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene, which is distributed across Java and Bali.
