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Pertamina official takes blame for blaze

State oil and gas company Pertamina’s top official took responsibility for the fire at the Cilacap refinery as it was announced that the flames were extinguished on Wednesday

Agus Maryono (The Jakarta Post)
Cilacap
Thu, April 7, 2011

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Pertamina official takes blame for blaze

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tate oil and gas company Pertamina’s top official took responsibility for the fire at the Cilacap refinery as it was announced that the flames were extinguished on Wednesday.

“As the official of PT Pertamina, I fully assume responsibility for the incident and will carry on with our job to tackle the case thoroughly, including an effort to determine the cause of the fire,” Pertamina president director Karen Agustiawan said during a media conference at the Patra Graha Building in Cilacap on Wednesday.

Firefighters reportedly extinguished the last of the blaze, putting an end to the five-day inferno that was triggered by an explosion on Saturday. The fire forced nearby residents to evacuate and prompted calls from lawmakers for Karen to resign.

During the media conference, Karen promised to conduct evaluations to prevent the fires from happening again.

“We have just extinguished the fire. Of course, we cannot discuss the cause yet, as we are still investigating it,” she said.

She brushed aside suggestions that Pertamina was slow in responding, saying that the fire was exacerbated by strong winds.

She spoke about planned restructuring efforts in the oil and gas industry, including a safety system enabling quick solutions to incidents.

While the fire caused a fuel loss of 280,000 barrels per day, Karen was positive that the incident would not disturb the nationwide fuel supply, because “we have enough in store”.

She apologized for inconveniencing people. One of seven refineries, the Cilacap plant produces an average of 348,000 barrels per day, catering to demand in Java and Bali.

After raging for five days, the fire was declared extinguished on Wednesday morning.

The last of the fire was in tank 31-T7, the same tank that was announced to have been secured on Tuesday before reigniting an hour later in an even bigger blaze.

Field observation showed that flames were no longer seen emerging from the tank, that only thick black smoke was visible.

“We are still spraying foam concentrate and water on the tanks in order to cool them down and stabilize them at a normal temperature,” Pertamina media manager Wianda Pusponegoro said in a press release.

Tank 31-T2 exploded on Saturday morning, igniting huge a blaze and panic among neighboring people as flames were seen spewing 50 meters into the sky.

The tank processed HOMC, a light fuel used as a raw material to enhance the octane content in gasoline. It was at full capacity, about 60,000 kiloliters, when it exploded.

The fire expanded to tank 31-T3 and tank 31-T7, containing the same substance and located about 50 meters away from tank 31-T2.

“We hope the fire has really been extinguished this time and will not reignite,” Wianda said.

“We are working hard to keep the temperature of tank 32-T104 below 80 degrees Celsius,” said Wianda, adding that the temperature so far was below 40 degree Celsius.

Separately, Cilacap Police Chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rudi Darmoko said his office had continued questioning witnesses in the case. “So far, we have heard from over 25 of them,” he told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

Some 1,200 nearby residents who had evacuated began returning home. “They mostly returned home on their own will, considering the present situation. But we are ready to transport them if they need to evacuate again,” he said.

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