Reuters) — An explosion and blast at BP's 420,000 barrels per day Whiting, Indiana, oil refinery, the third largest in the United States, slightly injured three people and downed a processing unit Friday, BP said.
The blast shut a catalytic hydrotreater, which removes sulfur from crude oil and distillates before further processing into oil products, but the rest of the refinery was operating normally, British oil major BP said.
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``It appears that hydrogen gas in the unit began to burn,'' BP said in a statement. The company would not elaborate.
BP has 300,000 bpd capacity of catalytic hydrotreating at the plant.
The plant is a big supplier to the Chicago cash oil products market, where traders said BP was seen buying in the market on Friday.
The fire helped push NYMEX September oil futures to a record $45.93 per barrel on Friday morning, the 10th record high hit in 11 trading days. Futures later slipped to trade at $45.51.
BP would not say how long the unit would be down.
Whiting police said one of the injured suffered a minor shoulder wound after the blast which occurred at 6:15 a.m. CDT . BP said two employees were treated at the plant for minor injuries, while a contractor was taken to the hospital for the shoulder injury.
Police said the blast was large. ``I live a mile from the refinery and I could feel my walls trembling,'' said Detective Sergeant Donald Greer about the blast.
The Whiting fire department told Reuters that BP's own squad fought the fire and that it had not been called out to fight the blaze.
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Thanks for the information about the refinery fire. It's interesting that it's not easy to find more on this.
What was all that negative news about BP recently?