Posted on 08/28/2014 5:53:26 AM PDT by thackney
An explosion shook BPs biggest U.S. refinery late Wednesday in Whiting, Indiana, but appears to have left no serious injuries after a fire was extinguished.
A spokesman for the Whiting Fire Department said Thursday a compressor at the refinery exploded, causing a blast that was felt at the station one-half mile away from the refinery. It caused a fire at the facility, but no injuries were reported, he said.
One worker was taken to the hospital as a precaution, but was later released, BP spokesman Scott Dean said in an emailed statement.
The London oil company said the fire was put out by its in-house fire department at 10:55 p.m. Wednesday. The blast, which BP called an operational incident, had occurred at 9 p.m.
The fire department spokesman said it was given the all-clear at 11:35 p.m.
The company says the Whiting refinery is the sixth-largest refinery in the U.S., with the capacity to process up to 428,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The blast minimally impacted the refining operations, and the refinery continues to make crude oil products, Dean said.
Earlier this year, crude oil from the Whiting refinery had spilled into Lake Michigan after a glitch that involved a water cooling unit at the refinery.
Refinery location is outside of Chicago area in Indiana
https://www.google.com/maps/place/BP+Whiting+Refinery/@41.6625081,-87.483109,66351m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xad86e3c07d3a0e33
Knee jerk reaction probably drove the price up $.04/gal here instead of a mere $.30 for the holiday weekend...
Four hour fire.
Probably a good enough excuse for a .75/gal hike in gas prices though.
When your Gas Buddy phone app starts pinging like a pinball game you know something is going on in the world...
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