The incident came just a month after another fire broke out at a fuel storage depot in North Jakarta that killed close to three dozen people, raising alarms over poor safety measures at Pertamina’s aging facilities.

A spokesperson for the Dumai Refinery Unit, Agustiawan, told The Jakarta Post in a statement on Sunday that the firm was focusing on helping the local community recover while the Riau Police investigated how the refinery’s gas compressor had caught fire, the suspected source of the blaze.

Agustiawan said some nearby houses and places of worship had suffered minor damage as a result of the fire and that nine workers who were stationed in an operations room were injured by glass shrapnel from the initial explosion.

All nine workers have been discharged from a Pertamina-owned hospital in the city after receiving first aid.

“We would like to apologize for the incident, and we will take responsibility for the damage caused to the community,” Agustiawan said, adding that Pertamina would compensate for any property damage caused by the incident.

He also said Pertamina had formed a team consisting of representatives of the Riau administration, law enforcement and the local community to aid in rebuilding and recovery.

To this end, the damage from the blaze was being surveyed and Pertamina had deployed a medical team to seek out any further injuries among residents.

“We can also ensure that the fuel stocks, particularly for the northern Sumatra region, are safe. Hopefully the recovery process goes well so that the refinery's operations return to the optimal condition in the next few days,” he added.

String of incidents

Saturday’s incident was the third time in four weeks that a Pertamina-owned facility had caught fire.

A fuel depot in the densely-packed Plumpang neighborhood of North Jakarta ignited on March 3, sending thousands of local residents fleeing.

While early estimates put the death toll at around a dozen lives, a Jakarta Health Agency official later corrected the figure to 33.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir visited the site a day after the incident, where Jokowi, a former Jakarta governor, promised to carry out safety and special planning audits of potentially hazardous facilities across the country.

Pertamina president director Nicke Widyawati told lawmakers on March 15 that the company planned to revive a decade-old plan of creating a 100-meter buffer zone around the fuel depot and the pipeline that supplies it.

The plan, formed after a similar incident in 2009, would result in the relocation of over 1,200 buildings and would take three months to complete, the director said.

On March 26, a Pertamina-chartered oil tanker – MT Kristin – caught fire on its way to Bali and Lombok, Nusa Tenggara, while carrying 5,900 kiloliters of fuel. A search and rescue team managed to save 14 of the ship’s 17 crew members. The remaining three died in the incident.

Safety concerns

Pertamina vice president for corporate communications Fadjar Djoko Santoso said that unlike the Plumpang depot, Pertamina had managed to maintain a buffer zone between the Dumai depot and nearby residents.

“The distance from the burnt [gas compressor] unit to nearby settlements is quite far, approximately 450 meters,” he said on Sunday.

Fadjar added that the firm would continue evaluating its safety standards.

“No one wants incidents like these to occur again and again. [That’s why Pertamina] will continue to evaluate the safety standards [of our facilities], particularly those that are at a higher risk,” he added.

Many of Pertamina’s oil and gas refineries are decades old, making them susceptible to breakdowns and accidents.

Separately, Pertamina chief commissioner Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama called for the company to install a high-level official to focus on the safety and security of the company’s operations.

“My advice to the board of directors has been clear, particularly since [the fires] have occurred repeatedly over a short period of time. Someone has to oversee the HSSE [Health, Security, Safety and Environmental] aspects on the field,” Ahok said on Sunday, as quoted by tempo.co.