KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian state energy firm Petronas said a fire and explosion occurred on Thursday at the Pengerang refinery-petrochemical complex, a joint venture it operates with Saudi Aramco in the southern Malaysian state of Johor.
No casualties were reported and the incident poses no immediate threat to the surrounding communities, Petronas said in a statement.
The fire occurred at one of the interconnecting pipes at the Pengerang Integrated Complex at 1540 local time and was completely extinguished in about an hour, Petronas said.
The 300,000 barrel-per-day complex has seen such accidents before.
In March 2020, five people were killed in a fire at the complex, forcing it to close for more than two years.
Senior vice-president of Saudi Aramco’s global downstream business, Mr Mohammed Al Qahtani, who is also chairman of Aramco Trading and United States-based Motiva Enterprises, said operations at Pengerang Refining Company and Pengerang Petrochemical, collectively known as PRefChem, resumed in May this year.
Mr Qahtani, speaking in Singapore earlier in October after a visit to Pengerang, noted that the plant at PRefChem is expected to reach its full production capacity of 300,000 barrels per day by the end of 2022.
He added that the key export market for its refined fuels is Asia, which is “home to some of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies”.
Pengerang in located in south-east Johor, across from Pulau Tekong.
REUTERS
