Dear All
Fire & explosion occurred at Venezuela’s largest oil refinery on 25-08-2012. It took 3 days for the fire fighters to bring the fire under control.
The gas cloud exploded, igniting at least two storage tanks and other facilities at the refinery. A devastating fire at Venezuela's main oil refinery, which has already left 48 people dead, spread Monday to a third fuel storage tank, complicating the difficult task facing firefighters.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared three days of national mourning and promised an investigation into Saturday's explosion at the Amuay refinery after a suspected gas leak, which sparked the massive blaze.
On Monday, the flames and a massive plume of smoke were still visible several kilometers (miles) away from the refinery. More than 220 firefighters were still at the scene, trying to douse the flames.
The refinery is located in a residential and commercial complex where workers live with their relatives and poor families who settled in surrounding neighborhoods. Authorities said 209 homes and 11 businesses had been affected.
Together, the two refineries process about 900,000 barrels of crude a day and 200,000 barrels of gasoline. Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the US and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Before the blast, the Amuay refinery was able to process about 645,000 barrels of crude oil a day. OPEC certified in 2011 that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world at 296.5 billion barrels, surpassing Saudi Arabia, the country with the biggest refining capacity.
Venezuelan media have often reported complaints about safety and maintenance standards at the country's refineries, but authorities insist there were no maintenance issues at Amuay.
As for the government's response to the gas leak, there are unanswered questions, said Javier Larranaga, a former manager at the refinery complex who was fired in 2003 along with thousands of others from PDVSA for supporting an anti-Chavez strike.
Larranaga said the Paraguana Refining Center, which includes the Amuay refinery, had a safety plan to rapidly evacuate workers and nearby neighbourhoods in such an incident. He said he doesn't understand why, after the gas leak was detected, about an hour passed before the explosion and still no one ordered an evacuation of surrounding areas.
Larranaga also said the refinery is equipped with a system that in the event of a gas leak can produce a "water smoke screen" to prevent the gas from spreading and allow time for people to be evacuated.
"The control system and emergency response wasn't activated, or was activated and didn't work," he said.
Now the team will interview witnesses, and once the cooling of the tanks is completed they will begin the second stage. Security is also being coordinated to protect evidence in the area. The team will identify the starting point of the explosion, analyse data in order to compare the “geometric behaviour” of the damage, heat transfer, and heat and smoke stain patterns.
Fire & explosion occurred at Venezuela’s largest oil refinery on 25-08-2012. It took 3 days for the fire fighters to bring the fire under control.
The gas cloud exploded, igniting at least two storage tanks and other facilities at the refinery. A devastating fire at Venezuela's main oil refinery, which has already left 48 people dead, spread Monday to a third fuel storage tank, complicating the difficult task facing firefighters.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared three days of national mourning and promised an investigation into Saturday's explosion at the Amuay refinery after a suspected gas leak, which sparked the massive blaze.
On Monday, the flames and a massive plume of smoke were still visible several kilometers (miles) away from the refinery. More than 220 firefighters were still at the scene, trying to douse the flames.
The refinery is located in a residential and commercial complex where workers live with their relatives and poor families who settled in surrounding neighborhoods. Authorities said 209 homes and 11 businesses had been affected.
Together, the two refineries process about 900,000 barrels of crude a day and 200,000 barrels of gasoline. Venezuela is a major supplier of oil to the US and a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Before the blast, the Amuay refinery was able to process about 645,000 barrels of crude oil a day. OPEC certified in 2011 that Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world at 296.5 billion barrels, surpassing Saudi Arabia, the country with the biggest refining capacity.
Venezuelan media have often reported complaints about safety and maintenance standards at the country's refineries, but authorities insist there were no maintenance issues at Amuay.
As for the government's response to the gas leak, there are unanswered questions, said Javier Larranaga, a former manager at the refinery complex who was fired in 2003 along with thousands of others from PDVSA for supporting an anti-Chavez strike.
Larranaga said the Paraguana Refining Center, which includes the Amuay refinery, had a safety plan to rapidly evacuate workers and nearby neighbourhoods in such an incident. He said he doesn't understand why, after the gas leak was detected, about an hour passed before the explosion and still no one ordered an evacuation of surrounding areas.
Larranaga also said the refinery is equipped with a system that in the event of a gas leak can produce a "water smoke screen" to prevent the gas from spreading and allow time for people to be evacuated.
"The control system and emergency response wasn't activated, or was activated and didn't work," he said.
Now the team will interview witnesses, and once the cooling of the tanks is completed they will begin the second stage. Security is also being coordinated to protect evidence in the area. The team will identify the starting point of the explosion, analyse data in order to compare the “geometric behaviour” of the damage, heat transfer, and heat and smoke stain patterns.
1 Attachment(s) [Login To View]