Monday, 11 July 2011 at 10:59, Bloomberg
CNOOC's Huizhou plant exploded, caused a fire that led to a halt in operations. (REUTERS)
China National Offshore Oil Corp’s Huizhou oil-processing plant, the company’s first refinery in the country, said fuel production at some units was reduced following an explosion this morning.
A blast rocked a refining unit at the plant in southern Guangdong province, China National Offshore said in a statement on its website. No-one was hurt, according to the statement. Liu Xiaobiao, a Beijing-based company spokesman, didn’t answer three telephone calls to his office seeking comment.
The explosion at Huizhou plant, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Dayawan Nuclear Power Station, followed oil leaks at an oilfield owned by unit Cnooc Ltd last month that caused a spill covering an area of 840 square kilometres (324 square miles) in Bohai Bay. The blast caused a fire at the refinery at 4:10 am local time and the blaze was put out after three hours, Xinhua News Agency said, citing the local government.
China National Offshore is still investigating the cause of the explosion at the plant, which started operating in 2009, according to the statement. There was no oil leak following the blast, Cnooc’s parent said.
Cnooc fell 1.5 per cent to HK$18.22 in Hong Kong trading at 10:39 am, compared with the 0.8 per cent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index.
China National Offshore plans to almost double the plant’s oil-refining capacity to 22 million metric tonnes a year, or 440,000 barrels a day, by 2013, former President Fu Chengyu said in April 2009. The company will also double its ethylene capacity at the petrochemical complex to 2 million tonnes a year, according to Fu.
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