Brazilian refinery hit by explosion, fire

An explosion and subsequent fire at Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s (Petrobras) 323,000-b/d Landulpho Alves refinery (RLAM) in Sao Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Brazil, has left three union workers seriously injured.
Jan. 19, 2015

An explosion and subsequent fire at Petroleo Brasileiro SA’s (Petrobras) 323,000-b/d Landulpho Alves refinery (RLAM) in Sao Francisco do Conde, Bahia, Brazil, has left three union workers seriously injured.

The blast occurred on Jan. 18 in the refinery’s U-38 hydrogen generation unit during planned maintenance activities, according to Jan. 19 notices posted to Brazilian oil worker union web sites.

The Jan. 18 explosion at RLAM follows a Jan. 14 fire that broke out in the refinery’s U-30 normal paraffin unit, the union notices said.

Petrobras has not disclosed any details regarding impacts to operations at RLAM as a result of the incidents.

U-38 has a hydrogen generation capacity of 1.1 million normal cu m/day, while U-30 has normal paraffin production capacity of 1,300 cu m/day (about 8,200 b/d), according to Brazil’s National Petroleum Agency.

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